Contention window size adjustment for retransmission operations

ABSTRACT

Some embodiments of this disclosure include systems, apparatuses, methods, and computer-readable media for use in a wireless network for facilitating retransmission procedures in New Radio (NR) technologies. Some embodiments are directed to a method that includes determining a contention window size (CWS) of an uplink/downlink (UL/DL) communication channel in a new radio unlicensed (NR-U) spectrum. The method also includes adjusting the CWS based on: defining a reference UL/DL burst set at a predetermined time length independent from a subcarrier spacing and partially spanning an UL/DL burst, and counting one or more code block groups (CBGs) in the reference UL/DL burst. The method further includes scheduling a retransmission of an UL/DL communication in the NR-U spectrum based on the adjusted CWS.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) of U.S.Provisional Application No. 62/804,107, filed Feb. 11, 2019, which ishereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD

Various embodiments generally may relate to the field of wirelesscommunications.

SUMMARY

Some embodiments of this disclosure include systems, apparatuses,methods, and computer-readable media for use in a wireless network forconfiguring the operation of a use equipment (UE).

Some embodiments are directed to a method, the method may includedetermining a contention window size (CWS) of an uplink/downlink (UL/DL)communication channel in a new radio unlicensed (NR-U) spectrum. Themethod may also include adjusting the CWS based on: defining a referenceUL/DL burst set at a predetermined time length independent from asubcarrier spacing and partially spanning an UL/DL burst, and countingone or more code block groups (CBGs) in the reference UL/DL burst. Themethod may also include scheduling a retransmission of an UL/DLcommunication based on the adjusted CWS.

Some embodiments are directed to a base station. In some aspects, thebase station may include network circuitry and processor circuitrycoupled to the network circuitry and configured to determine acontention window size (CWS) of an uplink/downlink (UL/DL) communicationchannel in a new radio unlicensed (NR-U) spectrum. The processorcircuitry may be further configured to adjust the CWS based on: defininga reference UL/DL burst set at a predetermined time length independentfrom a subcarrier spacing and partially spanning an UL/DL burst, andcounting one or more code block groups (CBGs) in the reference UL/DLburst, the counting further including counting one or more negativeacknowledgements (NACKs) from a signal received from a user equipment(UE). Moreover, the processor circuitry may be further configured toschedule a retransmission of an UL/DL communication based on theadjusted CWS.

Some embodiments are directed to a non-transitory computer-readablemedium comprising instructions to cause an apparatus, upon execution ofthe instructions by one or more processors of the apparatus, to performone or more operations, the operations may include determining acontention window size (CWS) of an uplink/downlink (UL/DL) communicationchannel in a new radio unlicensed (NR-U) spectrum. The operations mayalso include adjusting the CWS based on: defining a reference UL/DLburst set at a predetermined time length independent from a subcarrierspacing and partially spanning an UL/DL burst, and counting one or morecode block groups (CBGs) in the reference UL/DL burst. The operationsmay also include scheduling a retransmission of an UL/DL communicationbased on the adjusted CWS.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS/FIGURES

FIG. 1 illustrates a reference downlink burst, according to someembodiments;

FIG. 2 illustrates a reference downlink burst, according to someembodiments;

FIG. 3 illustrates timing between uplink reference burst and a CORSETcontaining uplink grant reception or configured-grant DCI (DFI-DCI),according to some embodiments;

FIG. 4 illustrates a partial PUSCH repetition used as a reference burst,according to some embodiments;

FIG. 5 depicts an architecture of a system of a network, in accordancewith some embodiments;

FIG. 6 depicts an architecture of a system including a first corenetwork, in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 7 depicts an architecture of a system including a second corenetwork in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 8 depicts an example of infrastructure equipment, in accordancewith various embodiments;

FIG. 9 depicts example components of a computer platform, in accordancewith various embodiments;

FIG. 10 depicts example components of baseband circuitry and radiofrequency circuitry, in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 11 is an illustration of various protocol functions that may beused for various protocol stacks, in accordance with variousembodiments;

FIG. 12 illustrates components of a core network, in accordance withvarious embodiments;

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating components of a system tosupport NFV, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 14 depicts a block diagram illustrating components configured toread instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium(e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform anyone or more of the methodologies discussed herein, according to someembodiments; and

FIG. 15 is a flow diagram illustration of a contention window sizeadjustment, according to some embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings.The same reference numbers may be used in different drawings to identifythe same or similar elements. In the following description, for purposesof explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth suchas particular structures, architectures, interfaces, techniques, etc. inorder to provide a thorough understanding of the various aspects ofvarious embodiments. However, it will be apparent to those skilled inthe art having the benefit of the present disclosure that the variousaspects of the various embodiments may be practiced in other examplesthat depart from these specific details. In certain instances,descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted soas not to obscure the description of the various embodiments withunnecessary detail. For the purposes of the present document, the phrase“A or B” means (A), (B), or (A and B).

The number of mobile devices connected to wireless networks continues tosignificantly increase. In order to keep up with the demand in mobiledata traffic, necessary changes have to be made to system requirementsto be able to meet these demands. Three critical areas that may beenhanced in order to deliver this increase in traffic are largerbandwidth, lower latency, and higher data rates.

A limiting factor in wireless innovation can be the availability inspectrum. To mitigate this limitation, the unlicensed spectrum has beenan area of interest to expand the availability of the Long-TermEvolution (LTE) wireless standard. In this context, an enhancement forLTE in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 13telecommunication standard has been to enable the operation of wirelessdevices in the unlicensed spectrum via Licensed-Assisted Access (LAA),which expands system bandwidth by utilizing a flexible carrieraggregation (CA) framework introduced by the LTE-Advanced system.

With the establishment of the main building blocks for the framework ofNew Radio (NR), an enhancement may be to allow this to also operate onunlicensed spectrum. Various aspects of NR-based operation in unlicensedspectrum may be considered, including:

-   -   1. Physical channels inheriting the choices of duplex mode,        waveform, carrier bandwidth, subcarrier spacing, frame        structure, and physical layer design made as part of the NR        study and avoiding unnecessary divergence with decisions made in        the NR Work Items (WI):        -   Consider unlicensed bands both below and above 6 GHz, up to            52.6 GHz;        -   Consider unlicensed bands above 52.6 GHz to the extent that            waveform design principles remain unchanged with respect to            below 52.6 GHz bands; and        -   Consider similar forward compatibility principles made in            the NR WI.    -   2. Initial access, channel access. Scheduling/Hybrid Automatic        Repeat Request (HARQ), and mobility including        connected/inactive/idle mode operation and radio-link        monitoring/failure.    -   3. Coexistence methods within NR-based and between NR-based        operation in unlicensed and LTE-based LAA and with other        incumbent Radio Access Technologies (RATs) in accordance with        regulatory requirements in, e.g., 5 GHz , 37 GHz, 60 GHz bands.    -   4. Coexistence methods defined for 5 GHz band in LTE-based LAA        context should be assumed as the baseline for 5 GHz operation.        Enhancements in 5 GHz over these methods should not be        precluded. NR-based operation in unlicensed spectrum should not        impact deployed Wi-Fi services (e.g., data, video and voice        services) more than an additional Wi-Fi network on the same        carrier.

According to some aspects, it is important to identify aspects of thedesign that can be enhanced for NR when operating in an unlicensedspectrum. One of the challenges in this case is that this system mustmaintain fair coexistence with other incumbent technologies, and inorder to do so depending on the particular band in which it mightoperate some restriction might be taken into account when designing thissystem. For instance, if operating in the 5 GHz band, a listen beforetalk (LBT) procedure may need to be performed in some parts of the worldto acquire the medium before a transmission can occur.

According to some examples, as included in Rel. 15 NR, among otherenhancements of the PHY layer, the HARQ procedure was improved andmodified. In some aspects, Rel. 15 NR discloses code block groups(CBGs), where a transport block (TB) is divided into smaller subsets,called CBGs. These groups are decoded by the UE, and the UE then sendsHARQ feedback for each CBG. An aim for the CBGs based retransmission isto consider that NR supports very large transport block sizes (TBS) andas in legacy LTE the scheduler works with 10% BLER target. This impliesthat if the gNB is transmitting data to the UE with a large TBS, around10% of this data is subject to retransmission. However, if the TB isdivided into smaller subsets, the UE will send NACK for only the failedsubsets and the gNB only need to retransmit the failed subsets insteadof the whole TB. This can reduce the overhead of retransmission andimprove spectral efficiency, even though this will increase the HARQfeedback overhead, since the UE will no longer need to transmit a singlebit per TB, but it will need to send multiple bits for each TB based onthe number of CBGs. In order to reduce this overhead, the CBG-based(re)transmission procedure is configurable. In fact, a UE issemi-statically configured by RRC signaling to enable CBG-basedretransmission, and the max number of CBGs per TB can be configured byRRC to be {2,4,6,8}. By changing the number of CBGs per TB, the numberof code block (CB) per CBG changes also according to the TBS. In Rel. 15NR, the CBG-based (re)-transmission is allowed only for the TB of a HARQprocess. The CBG-based (re)transmission procedure is also separatelyconfigurable for UL and DL.

According to some aspects, when operating the NR system on an unlicensedspectrum, before initiating any transmission, the LBT procedure may beperformed. In Rel-13 and Rel-14, for example, the LBT priority classes,LBT parameters, and MCOT values provided in Table I for DL and Table IIfor UL were agreed.

TABLE I LBT parameters and MCOT values for DL LBT Priority Class n CWminCWmax MCOT Set of CW sizes 1 1 3 7 2 ms {3, 7}  2 1 7 15 3 ms {7, 15} 33 15 63 8 or 10 ms {15, 31, 63} 4 7 15 1023 8 or 10 ms {15, 31, 63, 127,255, 511, 1023} Channel Access Priority Class (P)

TABLE II LBT parameters and MCOT values for UL LBT Priority Class nCWmin CWmax MCOT Set of CW sizes 1 2 3 7 2 ms {3, 7}  2 2 7 15 4 ms {7,15} 3 3 15 1023 6 ms (see note 1) or {15, 31, 63, 127, 255, 511, 1023}10 ms (see note 2) 4 7 15 1023 6 ms (see note 1) or {15, 31, 63, 127,255, 511, 1023} 10 ms (see note 2) NOTE 1: The MCOT of 6 ms may beincreased to 8 ms by inserting one or more gaps. The minimum duration ofa pause shall be 100 μs. The maximum duration (Channel Occupancy) beforeincluding any such gap shall be 6 ms. The gap duration is not includedin the channel occupancy time. NOTE 2: If the absence of any othertechnology sharing the carrier can be guaranteed on a long term basis(e.g., by level of regulation), the maximum channel occupancy time(MCOT) for LBT priority classes 3 and 4 is for 10 ms, otherwise, theMCOT for LBT priority classes 3 and 4 is 6 ms as in note 1.

According to some aspects, in legacy LAA, the contention windows size(CWS) is adapted based on the HARQ-ACK feedback.

According to an example, for DL and given a reference subframe set(which is the first DL subframe of the latest DL data burst for whichHARQ-ACK feedback is available), the CWS is increased if at least 80% ofthe HARQ-ACK feedback values for a reference subframe are NACK.Otherwise, the CWS is reset to the minimum value.

According to another example, for UL and given a reference subframe(which is the first subframe with UL-SCH that was transmitted at least 4ms prior to the UL grant reception in the most recent transmitted burstof contiguous subframes that is transmitted after performing a category4 LBT procedure) and the HARQ_ID_ref, which is the HARQ ID of thereference subframe, the CWS of all priority classes at the UE is resetfor all the priority classes if an UL grant is received and the New DataIndicator (NDI) bit for at least one of the active HARQ processes (i.e.,TB not disabled) of HARQ_ID_ref is toggled. Otherwise (i.e., HARQ_ID_refnot scheduled or NDI of the active HARQ process(es) of HARQ_ID_ref nottoggled), the contention window size of all priority classes at the UEis increased to the next higher value. Furthermore, the CWS is reset tothe minimum value if the maximum CWS is used for K consecutive LBTattempts for transmission only for the priority class for which maximumCWS is used for K consecutive LBT attempts, where K is selected by UEimplementation from the set of values from (1, . . . ,8).

According to some aspects, for NR operating on unlicensed spectrum, theparameters in Table I and Table II may be re-used. However, the CWSadjustment procedure for DL and UL might be instead modified. In fact,while in legacy LAA, a TB-based (re)transmission procedure is used, andthe CWS adjustment is tailored based on the TB-based (re)transmissionprocedure; in NR-U, a CBG-based retransmission procedure is used.According to embodiments described herein, multiple options are providedon how to update the CWS when a CBG-based (re)transmission procedure isused.

According to some embodiments, when operating a cellular system on anunlicensed spectrum, the LBT procedure might be required by the regionalregulation, and a CWS adjustment procedure which maintains faircoexistence with other incumbent technologies may be needed. In LTE LAA,the CWS adjustment procedure is based on the HARQ-ACK feedback, where aTB-based retransmission procedure is used. For example, in Re1.15 NR, aCBG-based (re)transmission was introduced, and for this reason thelegacy CWS adjustment procedure cannot be reused. In this disclosure,multiple options on how to update the CWS are provided.

According to some aspects, in Rel. 15 NR, among other enhancements ofthe PHY layer the concept of code block groups (CBGs) based transmissionwas introduced to reduce overhead and increase spectral efficiency whendata packet with large TBS is transmitted. A TB may be divided intomultiple CBGs. Upon decoding the CBGs a UE sends HARQ-ACK feedback foreach individual CBG rather than for the TB, and the gNB only retransmitsthe CBGs that were not received or decoded. While this procedure isefficient for large TBS, in some embodiments, this might induce largeoverhead for the HARQ-ACK feedbacks, which could overcome the benefit ofreducing overhead for the retransmission for small TBSs. For thisreason, in some embodiments, the CBG-based retransmission procedure isconfigurable. A UE may be semi-statically configured by RRC signaling toenable CBG-based retransmission, and the max number of CBGs per TB canbe configured by RRC to be {2,4,6,8}, and the max number of CBGs can beseparately configured for UL and DL.

When operating the NR system on an unlicensed spectrum (NR-U) and beforeinitiating any transmission, the LBT procedure may be performed, and itsCWS can be adjusted based on the HARQ-ACK feedback. During the LAA WI, aCWS adjustment procedure was introduced in order to allow faircoexistence with incumbent technologies. For NR-U, a similar intentionshould be maintained when designing the corresponding CWS adjustmentprocedure. While the Rel-14 LBT priority classes, LBT parameters, andMCOT values, summarized in Table I, may be reused as they are for NR-U,the same does not apply for the LTE LAA Rel-14 CWS adjustment procedure,which requires some modifications to account for the CBG-basedretransmission procedure introduced in Rel-15 for NR.

Sets for CWS Adjustment

In some embodiments, the parameters from Table I and Table II arereused. In some embodiments, the LBT parameters and MCOT values forTable II are as in Table III to align NR-U toward Wi-Fi and allow thetwo technologies to be in par. For example, note that for the belowtable as an example aCWmax=1023.

TABLE III LBT parameters and MCOT values for UL LBT Priority Class nCWmin CWmax MCOT Set of CW sizes 1 2 ((aCWmax + 1)/ ((aCWmax + 1)/ 2 ms{3, 7}  256 − 1) 128 − 1) 2 2 ((aCWmax + 1)/ ((aCWmax + 1)/ 4 ms {7, 15}128 − 1) 64 − 1) 3 3 ((aCWmax + 1)/ aCWmax 6 ms (see note 1) or {15, 31,63, 127, 255, 511, 1023} 64 − 1) 10 ms (see note 2) 4 7 ((aCWmax + 1)/aCWmax 6 ms (see note 1) or {15, 31, 63, 127, 255, 511, 1023} 64 − 1) 10ms (see note 2) NOTE 1: The MCOT of 6 ms may be increased to 8 ms byinserting one or more gaps. The minimum duration of a pause shall be 100μs. The maximum duration (Channel Occupancy) before including any suchgap shall be 6 ms. The gap duration is not included in the channeloccupancy time. NOTE 2: If the absence of any other technology sharingthe carrier can be guaranteed on a long term basis (e.g., by level ofregulation), the maximum channel occupancy time (MCOT) for LBT priorityclasses 3 and 4 is for 10 ms, otherwise, the MCOT for LBT priorityclasses 3 and 4 is 6 ms as in note 1.

CWS Adjustment in NR-U for DL

According to some aspects, in Re1.13, the following was agreed: CWS isincreased to the next higher value if at least 80% of the HARQ-ACKfeedback values for a reference subframe set are NACK. Otherwise, theCWS is reset to the minimum value.

As in NR, a CBG-based (re)-transmission is introduced, therefore the CWSadjustment procedure defined for LAA may be modified to clarify how thefeedbacks for each CBG are counted toward X % of the HARQ-ACK feedbacks,where X is in one example 80.

In some embodiments, a reference DL burst is defined for the CWSadjustment as follows:

According to some embodiments, the reference burst is always 1 ms longindependently from the subcarrier spacing and starts from the beginningof the DL burst, as illustrated in FIG. 1.

According to some embodiments, the reference burst is composed of thepartial SF (subframe) or slot from the beginning of the DLburst+following SF or slot independently from the subcarrier spacing, asillustrated in FIG. 2.

In case the partial subframe is the only subframe included in thereference DL burst, only the partial subframe is used for CWSadjustment, according to some embodiments.

According to some embodiments, the reference burst may be composed of Nsymbols (e.g., 14) from the start of the DL burst, where N is RadioResource Control (RRC) configured, and N may be larger than the numberof symbols in the partial slot. According to other embodiments, thereference burst may be composed of the partial slot only.

According to some embodiments, the reference burst may be composed of Tms, or μs, starting from the beginning of the DL burst, where T, forexample, is 1 ms.

In some embodiments, when the CBG-based transmission is configured, theNACKs are counted such that if a NACK is received for at least one ofthe CBGs for a specific TB, all other CBG feedbacks for that TB withinthe reference slot set are also counted as NACK. In other embodiments,when the CBG-based transmission is configured, each feedback is countedindividually for each CBG within a TB as either a NACK or an ACKindependently of the value of the other CBG feedback for that TB.

In some embodiments, the ACK/NACK is counted per TB, which requires arepresentation of ACK/NACK for each TB with CBG based HARQ ACK feedback.In some embodiments, a TB can be counted as NACK, if (1) all the CBGscomprising the TB are NACK'ed, (2) at least one CBG is NACK'ed, or (3) X% of CBGs are NACK'ed.

In some embodiments, when CBG-based transmission is configured, the NACKis counted on a per TB basis, meaning that all the CBGs per TB arebundled into one bit. In this case, if the gNB doesn't schedule allunsuccessful CBG of a TB, there may be two available choices: either theTB is be considered as a NACK even though all scheduled CBG arecorrectly received, or the TB is not counted for CWS adjustment. In someembodiments, only the currently scheduled CBGs are considered to derivebundled HARQ-ACK for CWS adjustment. In some embodiments, a TB can becounted as NACK, if (1) all the currently scheduled CBGs of the TB areNACK'ed, (2) at least one of the currently scheduled CBG is NACK'ed, or(3) X % of currently scheduled CBGs are NACK'ed.

In some embodiments, since some UEs may be configured with CBG-basedtransmission while others can perform TB based transmission, thepercentage of NACKs Z is evaluated through one of the following ways:

$\begin{matrix}{{1.\mspace{14mu} Z} = {( {{c*{NACK}_{CBG}} + {t*{NACK}_{TB}}} )\text{/}( {{c*N_{CBG}} + {t*N_{TB}}} )}} & (1) \\{{2.\mspace{14mu} Z} = {( {{u*{NACK}_{CBG}} + {( {1 - u} )*{NACK}_{TB}}} )\text{/}( {{u*N_{CBG}} + {( {1 - u} )*N_{TB}}} )}} & (2)\end{matrix}$

where NACK_(CBG) is the number of NACKs per CBG in the reference DLburst, NACK_(TB) is the number of NACKs per TB in the reference DLburst, NCBG is the total number of CBGs feedbacks in the DL referenceburst, N_(TB) is the total number of TBs feedbacks in the DL referenceburst. In some embodiments, if Equation (1) is used, then “c” and “t”are two variables, where for example 0≤c≤1 and 0≤t≤1. Note that thevariables “c” and “t” may be defined as a function of maximum number ofCBG within a slot for UEs or 8. In some embodiments, these two values“c” and “t” may depend on the number of TB and/or CBG transmissionsscheduled in the window or DL burst.

In some embodiments, the value of “c” and/or “t” are RRC configurable ordepends on the configuration. In some embodiments, if Equation (2) isused, “u” is a variable such that 0≤u≤1. In some embodiments, the valueof “u” is RRC configurable or depends on the configuration.

In some embodiments, the TBs/CBGs/CBs feedbacks for one or more of thefollowing cases are not used for the CWS adjustment:

-   -   1. TB/CBG/CB that is punctured by others, e.g., URLLC.    -   2. In the initial partial slot, the TB/CBG/CB punctured due to        late channel occupation.    -   3. Due to Bandwidth Part (BWP) switch, UE doesn't report        HARQ-ACK for certain Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH).        In this case, the transmission is considered a NACK as default        or it is ignored for the CWS adjustment.    -   4. If gNB doesn't schedule all unsuccessful CBG of a TB, such TB        is not counted.

In some embodiments, for self-scheduling DTX is considered as anindication of collision and as a NACK in the matter of the CWSadjustment mechanism. In some embodiments, for cross-carrier scheduling,DTX is ignored for the matter of the CWS adjustment mechanism. In someembodiments, for cross-carrier scheduling, DTX is considered as anindication of collision and as a NACK in the matter of the CWSadjustment for the scheduling cell. In some embodiments, DTX isconsidered as an indication of collision and as a NACK in the matter ofthe CWS adjustment in case that the related PDCCH is transmitted in a DLburst followed by CAT-4 LBT. In some embodiments, DTX is considered asan indication of collision and as a NACK in the matter of the CWSadjustment in case that the related PDCCH is transmitted in thereference burst within a DL burst followed by CAT-4 LBT. In someembodiments, similarly as legacy LTE LAA, based on how scheduling isperformed (e.g., self-scheduling or cross-carrier scheduling), the wayhow the DTX feedback would be interpreted toward the CWS adjustment maybe different. For example, in the case that the PDCCH is transmitted ina separate channel, DTX should be ignored, and when PUCCH is transmittedin the same channel, it is an indication that there may be a collision.Thus, DTX should be treated as a NACK.

According to some aspects, the CWS update for the gNB is considered whenthe acquired COT is shared with grant-free or scheduled UEs, or whenPDSCH transmission is not performed by the gNB:

-   -   a. If the gNB performs PDSCH transmissions, and part of the        acquired MCOT is configured for UL transmissions with        overlapping time-domain resources for scheduled or grant-free        transmissions, in some embodiments, the CWS update is performed        as described above.    -   b. If the gNB does not perform any PDSCH transmissions, and part        of the acquired MCOT is configured for UL transmissions with        overlapping time-domain resources:        -   A. In some embodiments, if eNB schedules UL transport blocks            (TBs) with 25 us LBT in a shared COT without any PDSCH, the            gNB increases the CWS if less than X % of the scheduled UL            TBs are not successfully received or if less than X % of the            CBGs for the scheduled UL are not successfully received,            where Xis as an example 10, or in case Q*100 is less than X,            where Q is given by one of the following equations:

$\begin{matrix}{{{{1.}\mspace{14mu} Q} = {( {{c*{NACK}_{CBG}} + {t*{NACK}_{TB}}} )\text{/}( {{c*N_{CBG}} + {t*N_{TB}}} )}},} & (3) \\{{{{2.}\mspace{14mu} Q} = {( {{u*{NACK}_{CBG}} + {( {1 - u} )*{NACK}_{TB}}} )\text{/}( {{u*N_{CBG}} + {( {1 - u} )*N_{TB}}} )}},} & (4)\end{matrix}$

where NACK_(CBG) is the number of NACKs per scheduled UL CBG in thereference DL burst, NACK_(TB) is the number of NACKs per UL scheduled TBin the reference DL burst, N_(CBG) is the total number of scheduled ULCBGs feedbacks in the DL reference burst, N_(TB) is the total number ofUL scheduled TBs feedbacks in the DL reference burst. In someembodiments, if Equation (3) is used “c” and “t” are two variables. Inanother option, these two values “c” and “t” may depend on the number ofTB and/or CBG transmissions scheduled in the shared COT.

In some embodiments, the value of “c” and/or “t” are RRC configurable ordepends on the configuration. In some embodiments, if Equation (4) isused, “u” is a variable such that 0≤u≤1. In some embodiments, the valueof “u” is RRC configurable or depends on the configuration

In some embodiments, if gNB schedules UL transport blocks (TBs) with 25μs LBT in a shared COT without any PDSCH, and also shares the MCOT withgrant-free UEs, the CWS update is performed based on the schedule and/orgrant-free TBs or CBGs that have been detected by the gNB.

CWS Adjustment in NR-U for UL

In some embodiments, for the Cat. 4 LBT for UL transmission, the CWS isadjusted per UE and at the UE.

In some embodiments, a reference UL burst may be defined for the CWSadjustment as follows:

-   -   1. the reference burst is set to a predetermined length (e.g., 1        ms) long independently from the subcarrier spacing and starts        from the beginning of the UL burst.    -   2. the reference burst may be composed by the partial SF from        the beginning of the UL burst+following SF independently from        the subcarrier spacing. In case the partial subframe is the only        subframe included in the reference UL burst, only the partial        subframe is used for CWS adjustment.    -   3. the reference burst is composed by N symbols from the start        of the UL burst, where N is RRC configured, and N may be larger        than the number of symbols that compose the initial partial        slot.    -   4. the reference burst is composed by the initial partial slot        only.    -   5. the reference burst is composed by T ms starting from the        beginning of the UL burst, where T is for example 1 ms.

In some embodiments, the gNB configures a number of symbols N, so thatthe reference burst occurs at least in symbol ns-N, where ns is thefirst or last symbol of the CORESET containing the UL grant or a DFIDCI. In some embodiments, N is evaluated as

$\begin{matrix}{{N = {N_{x} + y}},} & (5)\end{matrix}$

where N_(x) is the processing delay based on gNB capability for PUSCHdecoding (which depends on the subcarrier spacing), and y is a margin togive gNB freedom for scheduling.

In some embodiments, N is evaluated as

$\begin{matrix}{{N = {N_{x} + {TA} + y}},} & (6)\end{matrix}$

where N_(x) is the processing delay based on gNB capability for PUSCHdecoding (which depends on the subcarrier spacing), and y is a margin togive gNB freedom for scheduling, and TA is the time advance of the UE.

In some embodiments, similarly as in legacy LTE-LAA, the gNB configuresa number of slot N, so that the reference burst occurs before ns-N,where ns is here the slot containing the UL grant or the DFI DCI. Anillustration of the above concept is provided in FIG. 3.

In some embodiments, the HARQ_ID_ref can be defined as the HARQ processID of the reference burst.

In some embodiments, for scheduled UEs, if the NDI bit for at least oneof the active HARQ processes of HARQ_ID_ref in the reference burst istoggled, the contention window size at the UE is reset for all thepriority classes. In some embodiments, if the HARQ_ID_ref is notscheduled or NDI of the active HARQ process(es) of HARQ_ID_ref is nottoggled, the contention window size of all priority classes at the UE isincreased to the next higher value.

In some embodiments, if CBG-based transmission is configured, theindividual bits of the CBG Transmit Information (CBGTI)=1 is consideredas failure when the NDI is not toggled (i.e., retransmission) for thesame HARQ process, i.e., NACK; otherwise it is considered as successful,i.e., ACK. In some embodiments, the CBGs are bundled to represent theinformation on TB failure/success in the CWS adjustment mechanism.

In some embodiments, if CBG-based transmission is configured, all CBGsof a TB transmitted in the reference burst is considered in CWSadjustment. In some embodiments, if CBG-based transmission isconfigured, only the currently transmitted CBGs of a TB transmitted inthe reference burst is considered for CWS adjustment.

In some embodiments, when the CBG-base transmission is configured, theNACK are counted such that if a NACK is received for at least one of theCBG for a specific TB, all other CBG feedbacks for that TB within thereference burst set are also counted as NACK. In some embodiments, whenthe CBG-based transmission is configured, each feedback is countedindividually for each CBG within a TB as either a NACK or an ACKindependently of the value of the other CBG feedback for that TB. Insome embodiments, the ACK/NACK is counted per TB, which requires arepresentation of ACK/NACK for each TB with CBG based HARQ ACK feedback.In some embodiments, a TB can be counted as NACK, if (1) all the CBGscomprising the TB are NACK'ed, (2) at least one CBG is NACK'ed, or (3) X% of CBGs are NACK'ed.

In some embodiments, the percentage of NACKs X is evaluated through oneof the following equations:

$\begin{matrix}{{{1.\mspace{14mu} X} = {( {{c*{NACK}_{CBG}} + {t*{NACK}_{TB}}} )\text{/}( {{c*N_{CBG}} + {t*N_{TB}}} )}},} & (7) \\{{{2.\mspace{14mu} X} = {( {{u*{NACK}_{CBG}} + {( {u - 1} )*{NACK}_{TB}}} )\text{/}( {{u*N_{CBG}} + {( {u - 1} )*N_{TB}}} )}},} & (8)\end{matrix}$

where NACK_(CBG) is the number of NACKs per CBG in the reference ULburst, NACK_(TB) is the number of NACKs per TB in the reference ULburst, N_(CBG) is the total number of CBGs feedbacks in the UL referenceburst, N_(TB) is the total number of TBs feedbacks in the UL referenceburst. In some embodiments, if Equation (7) is used, “c” and “t” are twovariables. In another option, these two values “c” and “t” may depend onthe number of TB and/or CBG transmissions scheduled in the UL burst. Insome embodiments, the value of “c” and/or “t” are RRC configurable ordepends on the configuration. In some embodiments, if Equation (8) isused, “u” is a variable such that 0≤u≤1. In some embodiments, the valueof “u” is RRC configurable or depends on the configuration

In some embodiments:

-   -   1. If a configured grant (CG)-DFI is received, and if CBG-based        configuration is used, the CWS will be reset to its minimum        value if all of the currently scheduled CBGs of the TB are        ACK'ed. Otherwise, the CWS can be increased.    -   2. If a UL grant is received, and CBG-based transmissions is        configured, the UE knows the status of each CBG via the CBG        Transmit Information (CBGTI). If the NDI bit is not toggled        (i.e., retransmission), it can be a NACK if any of the CBGTI        bits is set to 1.

As in Rel-14, in some embodiments, the CWS is reset to the minimum valueif the maximum CWS is used for K consecutive LBT attempts fortransmission only for the priority class for which maximum CWS is usedfor K consecutive LBT attempts, and the value of K is left up to UE'simplementation.

For grant-free uplink transmission in NR-U, in some embodiments, if anUL grant or a DFI-DCI is received, the CWS is reset for all the priorityclasses if a UL grant is received and the NDI bit for at least one ofthe active HARQ processes associated with HARQ_ID_ref is toggled or anDFI-DCI is received and indicates:

-   -   ACK for all the CBGs for at least one of the active HARQ        processes associated with HARQ_ID_ref.    -   ACK for one of the CBGs for at least one of the active HARQ        processes associated with HARQ_ID_ref.    -   ACK for Y % of the CBGs for at least one of the active HARQ        processes associated with HARQ_ID_ref.

According to some embodiments, the CWS of all priority classes at the UEmay be increased to the next higher value if a UL grant is received andthe NDI bit(s) of all the active HARQ processe(s) for the referenceburst are not toggled, or a UL grant is received and does not scheduleany active HARQ process for the reference burst or a DFI-DCI is receivedwhich:

-   -   does not indicate ACK for all the CBGs for at least one of the        active HARQ processes for the reference burst.    -   does not indicate ACK for X % of all the CBGs for at least one        of the active HARQ processes for the reference burst.    -   does not indicate ACK for X % of the CBGs for at least one of        the active

HARQ processes associated with HARQ_ID_ref.

As for Rel-14, the CWS is reset to the minimum value if the maximum CWSis used for K consecutive LBT attempts for transmission only for thepriority class for which maximum CWS is used for K consecutive LBTattempts, and the value of K is left up to UE's implementation.

According to some embodiments, if there is at least one previous Cat.4LBT UL transmission, from the start slot of which N or more slots haveelapsed and neither UL grant nor DFI-DCI is received, where as anexample N=max (X, corresponding UL burst length+1) if X>0 and N=0otherwise, where X is RRC configured. For each previous Cat-4 LBT(SUL/AUL) transmission from the start slot of which N or more slots haveelapsed and neither UL grant nor DFI-DCI is received, CWS for allpriority classes at the UE is increased to the next higher value, andeach such previous Cat-4 LBT transmission is used to adjust the CWS onlyonce, according to some embodiments.

According to some embodiments, if the UE starts a new Cat-4 LBT ULtransmission before N slots have elapsed from the previous Cat-4 LBT andneither UL grant nor DFI-DCI is received, the CWS is unchanged.

According to some embodiments, if the UE receives feedback for one ormore previous Cat-4 LBT (SUL/AUL) transmission from the start slot ofwhich N or more slots have elapsed and neither UL grant nor DFI-DCI wasreceived, it may re-compute the CWS as follows: (i) it reverts the CWSto the value used to transmit the first burst of such previous Cat-4 LBTtransmission(s); (ii) it updates the CWS sequentially in order of thetransmission of bursts as follows.

According to some embodiments, if the feedback indicates:

-   -   ACK for all the CBGs for the first slot of the burst,    -   Or ACK for X % of all CBGs for the first slot of the burst then        CWS is reset else the CWS is doubled. If the UE CWS changes        while a Cat-4 LBT procedure is ongoing, the UE draws a new        random back-off counter and applies it to the ongoing LBT        procedure.

In some embodiments, only the PUSCH for one or more of the followingcases are used for the CWS adjustment:

-   -   Only PUSCH whose starting symbol is within the reference burst;    -   Only PUSCH within the reference burst; and    -   Only the earliest PUSCH within the reference burst.

In some embodiments, the TB/CBGs for one or more of the following arenot used for the CWS adjustment:

-   -   TB/CBG that is punctured by others, e.g., URLLC; and    -   In the initial partial slot, the TB/CBG punctured due to late        channel occupation.

In some embodiments, for multi-slot PUSCH, one of the following optionscan be enforced to prevent that a partial PUSCH repetition might be usedas a reference burst as illustrated in FIG. 4.

According to some aspects, the gNB's implementation can guarantee thatafter getting a reference timing ns-N, there will always be a PUSCH witha full repetitions, which can be used as reference burst.

According to some aspects, if the reference timing ns-N is in the middleof the repetitions of a TB, UE can skip this TB, and use some evenearlier PUSCH transmission as reference burst.

According to some aspects, a threshold can be configured to decidewhether a TB can be used within the reference burst. The threshold canbe a number of repetitions. If the reference timing ns-N is in themiddle of the repetitions of a TB and if the number of repetitionsreceived by gNB is higher than threshold, the HARQ-ACK for the TB canstill be a good reference for CWS; otherwise, UE can skip this TB, anduse an even earlier PUSCH transmission as reference burst.

According to some aspects, a threshold can be used to determine thenumber of repetitions used by gNB. The threshold can be a maximum codingrate. If the reference timing ns-N is in the middle of the repetitionsof a TB and if coding rate of repetitions received by gNB is lower thanthe threshold, the current TB can be used within the reference burst.Otherwise, UE can skip this TB, and use some even earlier PUSCHtransmission as reference burst.

According to some aspects, regardless of the reference timing ns-N, inthis case if at least one of the repetitions follow with the referenceburst, all the repetitions will be used for the CWS adjustment.

According to some aspects, assuming there are multiple PUSCHstransmitted in the reference burst and there is a multi-slot PUSCH inthe reference burst, however only part of its repetitions is received bygNB, only other PUSCHs are considered in the CWS adjustment.

Systems and Implementations

FIG. 5 illustrates an example architecture of a system 500 of a network,in accordance with various embodiments. The following description isprovided for an example system 500 that operates in conjunction with theLTE system standards and 5G or NR system standards as provided by 3GPPtechnical specifications. However, the example embodiments are notlimited in this regard and the described embodiments may apply to othernetworks that benefit from the principles described herein, such asfuture 3GPP systems (e.g., Sixth Generation (6G)) systems, IEEE 802.16protocols (e.g., WMAN, WiMAX, etc.), or the like.

As shown by FIG. 5, the system 500 includes UE 501 a and UE 501 b(collectively referred to as “UEs 501” or “UE 501”). One or moreelements of system 500 can perform operations described herein, such asthose described with respect to FIG. 15. In this example, UEs 501 areillustrated as smartphones (e.g., handheld touchscreen mobile computingdevices connectable to one or more cellular networks), but may alsocomprise any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as consumerelectronics devices, cellular phones, smartphones, feature phones,tablet computers, wearable computer devices, personal digital assistants(PDAs), pagers, wireless handsets, desktop computers, laptop computers,in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), in-car entertainment (ICE) devices, anInstrument Cluster (IC), head-up display (HUD) devices, onboarddiagnostic (OBD) devices, dashtop mobile equipment (DME), mobile dataterminals (MDTs), Electronic Engine Management System (EEMS),electronic/engine control units (ECUs), electronic/engine controlmodules (ECMs), embedded systems, microcontrollers, control modules,engine management systems (EMS), networked or “smart” appliances, MTCdevices, M2M, IoT devices, and/or the like.

In some embodiments, any of the UEs 501 may be IoT UEs, which maycomprise a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applicationsutilizing short-lived UE connections. An IoT UE can utilize technologiessuch as M2M or MTC for exchanging data with an MTC server or device viaa PLMN, ProSe or D2D communication, sensor networks, or IoT networks.The M2M or MTC exchange of data may be a machine-initiated exchange ofdata. An IoT network describes interconnecting IoT UEs, which mayinclude uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within theInternet infrastructure), with short-lived connections. The IoT UEs mayexecute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, statusupdates, etc.) to facilitate the connections of the IoT network.

The UEs 501 may be configured to connect, for example, communicativelycouple, with an or RAN 510. In embodiments, the RAN 510 may be an NG RANor a 5G RAN, an E-UTRAN, or a legacy RAN, such as a UTRAN or GERAN. Asused herein, the term “NG RAN” or the like may refer to a RAN 510 thatoperates in an NR or 5G system 500, and the term “E-UTRAN” or the likemay refer to a RAN 510 that operates in an LTE or 4G system 500. The UEs501 utilize connections (or channels) 503 and 504, respectively, each ofwhich comprises a physical communications interface or layer (discussedin further detail below).

In this example, the connections 503 and 504 are illustrated as an airinterface to enable communicative coupling, and can be consistent withcellular communications protocols, such as a GSM protocol, a CDMAnetwork protocol, a PTT protocol, a POC protocol, a UMTS protocol, a3GPP LTE protocol, a 5G protocol, a NR protocol, and/or any of the othercommunications protocols discussed herein. In embodiments, the UEs 501may directly exchange communication data via a ProSe interface 505. TheProSe interface 505 may alternatively be referred to as a SL interface505 and may comprise one or more logical channels, including but notlimited to a PSCCH, a PSSCH, a PSDCH, and a PSBCH.

The UE 501 b is shown to be configured to access an AP 506 (alsoreferred to as “WLAN node 506,” “WLAN 506,” “WLAN Termination 506,” “WT506” or the like) via connection 507. The connection 507 can comprise alocal wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE802.11 protocol, wherein the AP 506 would comprise a wireless fidelity(Wi-Fi®) router. In this example, the AP 506 is shown to be connected tothe Internet without connecting to the core network of the wirelesssystem (described in further detail below). In various embodiments, theUE 501 b, RAN 510, and AP 506 may be configured to utilize LWA operationand/or LWIP operation. The LWA operation may involve the UE 501 b inRRC_CONNECTED being configured by a RAN node 511 a-b to utilize radioresources of LTE and WLAN. LWIP operation may involve the UE 501 b usingWLAN radio resources (e.g., connection 507) via IPsec protocol tunnelingto authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., IP packets) sent over theconnection 507. IPsec tunneling may include encapsulating the entiretyof original IP packets and adding a new packet header, therebyprotecting the original header of the IP packets.

The RAN 510 can include one or more AN nodes or RAN nodes 511 a and 511b (collectively referred to as “RAN nodes 511” or “RAN node 511”) thatenable the connections 503 and 504. As used herein, the terms “accessnode,” “access point,” or the like may describe equipment that providesthe radio baseband functions for data and/or voice connectivity betweena network and one or more users. These access nodes can be referred toas BS, gNB s, RAN nodes, eNB s, NodeBs, RSUs, TRxPs or TRPs, and soforth, and can comprise ground stations (e.g., terrestrial accesspoints) or satellite stations providing coverage within a geographicarea (e.g., a cell). As used herein, the term “NG RAN node” or the likemay refer to a RAN node 511 that operates in an NR or 5G system 500 (forexample, a gNB), and the term “E-UTRAN node” or the like may refer to aRAN node 511 that operates in an LTE or 4G system 500 (e.g., an eNB).According to various embodiments, the RAN nodes 511 may be implementedas one or more of a dedicated physical device such as a macrocell basestation, and/or a low power (LP) base station for providing femtocells,picocells or other like cells having smaller coverage areas, smalleruser capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells.

In some embodiments, all or parts of the RAN nodes 511 may beimplemented as one or more software entities running on server computersas part of a virtual network, which may be referred to as a CRAN and/ora virtual baseband unit pool (vBBUP). In these embodiments, the CRAN orvBBUP may implement a RAN function split, such as a PDCP split whereinRRC and PDCP layers are operated by the CRAN/vBBUP and other L2 protocolentities are operated by individual RAN nodes 511; a MAC/PHY splitwherein RRC, PDCP, RLC, and MAC layers are operated by the CRAN/vBBUPand the PHY layer is operated by individual RAN nodes 511; or a “lowerPHY” split wherein RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC layers and upper portions of thePHY layer are operated by the CRAN/vBBUP and lower portions of the PHYlayer are operated by individual RAN nodes 511. This virtualizedframework allows the freed-up processor cores of the RAN nodes 511 toperform other virtualized applications. In some implementations, anindividual RAN node 511 may represent individual gNB-DUs that areconnected to a gNB-CU via individual Fl interfaces (not shown by FIG.5). In these implementations, the gNB-DUs may include one or more remoteradio heads or RFEMs (see, e.g., FIG. 8), and the gNB-CU may be operatedby a server that is located in the RAN 510 (not shown) or by a serverpool in a similar manner as the CRAN/vBBUP. Additionally oralternatively, one or more of the RAN nodes 511 may be next generationeNBs (ng-eNBs), which are RAN nodes that provide E-UTRA user plane andcontrol plane protocol terminations toward the UEs 501, and areconnected to a 5GC (e.g., CN 720 of FIG. 7) via an NG interface(discussed infra).

In V2X scenarios one or more of the RAN nodes 511 may be or act as RSUs.The term “Road Side Unit” or “RSU” may refer to any transportationinfrastructure entity used for V2X communications. An RSU may beimplemented in or by a suitable RAN node or a stationary (or relativelystationary) UE, where an RSU implemented in or by a UE may be referredto as a “UE-type RSU,” an RSU implemented in or by an eNB may bereferred to as an “eNB-type RSU,” an RSU implemented in or by a gNB maybe referred to as a “gNB-type RSU,” and the like. In one example, an RSUis a computing device coupled with radio frequency circuitry located ona roadside that provides connectivity support to passing vehicle UEs 501(vUEs 501). The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry tostore intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, as well asapplications/software to sense and control ongoing vehicular andpedestrian traffic. The RSU may operate on the 5.9 GHz Direct ShortRange Communications (DSRC) band to provide very low latencycommunications required for high speed events, such as crash avoidance,traffic warnings, and the like. Additionally or alternatively, the RSUmay operate on the cellular V2X band to provide the aforementioned lowlatency communications, as well as other cellular communicationsservices. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may operate as a Wi-Fihotspot (2.4 GHz band) and/or provide connectivity to one or morecellular networks to provide uplink and downlink communications. Thecomputing device(s) and some or all of the radiofrequency circuitry ofthe RSU may be packaged in a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoorinstallation, and may include a network interface controller to providea wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controllerand/or a backhaul network.

Any of the RAN nodes 511 can terminate the air interface protocol andcan be the first point of contact for the UEs 501. In some embodiments,any of the RAN nodes 511 can fulfill various logical functions for theRAN 510 including, but not limited to, radio network controller (RNC)functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamicradio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobilitymanagement.

In embodiments, the UEs 501 can be configured to communicate using OFDMcommunication signals with each other or with any of the RAN nodes 511over a multicarrier communication channel in accordance with variouscommunication techniques, such as, but not limited to, an OFDMAcommunication technique (e.g., for downlink communications) or a SC-FDMAcommunication technique (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelinkcommunications), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited inthis respect. The OFDM signals can comprise a plurality of orthogonalsubcarriers.

In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlinktransmissions from any of the RAN nodes 511 to the UEs 501, while uplinktransmissions can utilize similar techniques. The grid can be atime-frequency grid, called a resource grid or time-frequency resourcegrid, which is the physical resource in the downlink in each slot. Sucha time-frequency plane representation is a common practice for OFDMsystems, which makes it intuitive for radio resource allocation. Eachcolumn and each row of the resource grid corresponds to one OFDM symboland one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource gridin the time domain corresponds to one slot in a radio frame. Thesmallest time-frequency unit in a resource grid is denoted as a resourceelement. Each resource grid comprises a number of resource blocks, whichdescribe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements.Each resource block comprises a collection of resource elements; in thefrequency domain, this may represent the smallest quantity of resourcesthat currently can be allocated. There are several different physicaldownlink channels that are conveyed using such resource blocks.

According to various embodiments, the UEs 501, 502 and the RAN nodes511, 512 communicate data (for example, transmit and receive) data overa licensed medium (also referred to as the “licensed spectrum” and/orthe “licensed band”) and an unlicensed shared medium (also referred toas the “unlicensed spectrum” and/or the “unlicensed band”). The licensedspectrum may include channels that operate in the frequency range ofapproximately 400 MHz to approximately 3.8 GHz, whereas the unlicensedspectrum may include the 5 GHz band.

To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the UEs 501, 502 and the RANnodes 511, 512 may operate using LAA, eLAA, and/or feLAA mechanisms. Inthese implementations, the UEs 501, 502 and the RAN nodes 511, 512 mayperform one or more known medium-sensing operations and/orcarrier-sensing operations in order to determine whether one or morechannels in the unlicensed spectrum is unavailable or otherwise occupiedprior to transmitting in the unlicensed spectrum. The medium/carriersensing operations may be performed according to a listen-before-talk(LBT) protocol.

LBT is a mechanism whereby equipment (for example, UEs 501, 502, RANnodes 511, 512, etc.) senses a medium (for example, a channel or carrierfrequency) and transmits when the medium is sensed to be idle (or when aspecific channel in the medium is sensed to be unoccupied). The mediumsensing operation may include CCA, which utilizes at least ED todetermine the presence or absence of other signals on a channel in orderto determine if a channel is occupied or clear. This LBT mechanismallows cellular/LAA networks to coexist with incumbent systems in theunlicensed spectrum and with other LAA networks. ED may include sensingRF energy across an intended transmission band for a period of time andcomparing the sensed RF energy to a predefined or configured threshold.

Typically, the incumbent systems in the 5 GHz band are WLANs based onIEEE 802.11 technologies. WLAN employs a contention-based channel accessmechanism, called CSMA/CA. Here, when a WLAN node (e.g., a mobilestation (MS) such as UE 501 or 502, AP 506, or the like) intends totransmit, the WLAN node may first perform CCA before transmission.Additionally, a backoff mechanism is used to avoid collisions insituations where more than one WLAN node senses the channel as idle andtransmits at the same time. The backoff mechanism may be a counter thatis drawn randomly within the CWS, which is increased exponentially uponthe occurrence of collision and reset to a minimum value when thetransmission succeeds. The LBT mechanism designed for LAA is somewhatsimilar to the CSMA/CA of WLAN. In some implementations, the LBTprocedure for DL or UL transmission bursts including PDSCH or PUSCHtransmissions, respectively, may have an LAA contention window that isvariable in length between X and Y ECCA slots, where X and Y are minimumand maximum values for the CWSs for LAA. In one example, the minimum CWSfor an LAA transmission may be 9 microseconds (μs); however, the size ofthe CWS and a MCOT (for example, a transmission burst) may be based ongovernmental regulatory requirements.

The LAA mechanisms are built upon CA technologies of LTE-Advancedsystems. In CA, each aggregated carrier is referred to as a CC. A CC mayhave a bandwidth of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15 or 20 MHz and a maximum of fiveCCs can be aggregated, and therefore, a maximum aggregated bandwidth is100 MHz. In FDD systems, the number of aggregated carriers can bedifferent for DL and UL, where the number of UL CCs is equal to or lowerthan the number of DL component carriers. In some cases, individual CCscan have a different bandwidth than other CCs. In TDD systems, thenumber of CCs as well as the bandwidths of each CC is usually the samefor DL and UL.

CA also comprises individual serving cells to provide individual CCs.The coverage of the serving cells may differ, for example, because CCson different frequency bands will experience different pathloss. Aprimary service cell or PCell may provide a PCC for both UL and DL, andmay handle RRC and NAS related activities. The other serving cells arereferred to as SCells, and each SCell may provide an individual SCC forboth UL and DL. The SCCs may be added and removed as required, whilechanging the PCC may require the UE 501, 502 to undergo a handover. InLAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all of the SCells may operate in theunlicensed spectrum (referred to as “LAA SCells”), and the LAA SCellsare assisted by a PCell operating in the licensed spectrum. When a UE isconfigured with more than one LAA SCell, the UE may receive UL grants onthe configured LAA SCells indicating different PUSCH starting positionswithin a same subframe.

The PDSCH carries user data and higher-layer signaling to the UEs 501.The PDCCH carries information about the transport format and resourceallocations related to the PDSCH channel, among other things. It mayalso inform the UEs 501 about the transport format, resource allocation,and HARQ information related to the uplink shared channel. Typically,downlink scheduling (assigning control and shared channel resourceblocks to the UE 501 b within a cell) may be performed at any of the RANnodes 511 based on channel quality information fed back from any of theUEs 501. The downlink resource assignment information may be sent on thePDCCH used for (e.g., assigned to) each of the UEs 501.

The PDCCH uses CCEs to convey the control information. Before beingmapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols may firstbe organized into quadruplets, which may then be permuted using asub-block interleaver for rate matching. Each PDCCH may be transmittedusing one or more of these CCEs, where each CCE may correspond to ninesets of four physical resource elements known as REGs. Four QuadraturePhase Shift Keying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. The PDCCHcan be transmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of theDCI and the channel condition. There can be four or more different PDCCHformats defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregationlevel, L=1, 2, 4, or 8).

Some embodiments may use concepts for resource allocation for controlchannel information that are an extension of the above-describedconcepts. For example, some embodiments may utilize an EPDCCH that usesPDSCH resources for control information transmission. The EPDCCH may betransmitted using one or more ECCEs. Similar to above, each ECCE maycorrespond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as anEREGs. An ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs in some situations.

The RAN nodes 511 may be configured to communicate with one another viainterface 512. In embodiments where the system 500 is an LTE system(e.g., when CN 520 is an EPC 620 as in FIG. 6), the interface 512 may bean X2 interface 512. The X2 interface may be defined between two or moreRAN nodes 511 (e.g., two or more eNBs and the like) that connect to EPC520, and/or between two eNBs connecting to EPC 520. In someimplementations, the X2 interface may include an X2 user plane interface(X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U may provideflow control mechanisms for user data packets transferred over the X2interface, and may be used to communicate information about the deliveryof user data between eNBs. For example, the X2-U may provide specificsequence number information for user data transferred from a MeNB to anSeNB; information about successful in sequence delivery of PDCP PDUs toa UE 501 from an SeNB for user data; information of PDCP PDUs that werenot delivered to a UE 501; information about a current minimum desiredbuffer size at the SeNB for transmitting to the UE user data; and thelike. The X2-C may provide intra-LTE access mobility functionality,including context transfers from source to target eNBs, user planetransport control, etc.; load management functionality; as well asinter-cell interference coordination functionality.

In embodiments where the system 500 is a 5G or NR system (e.g., when CN520 is an 5GC 720 as in FIG. 7), the interface 512 may be an Xninterface 512. The Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes511 (e.g., two or more gNBs and the like) that connect to 5GC 520,between a RAN node 511 (e.g., a gNB) connecting to 5GC 520 and an eNB,and/or between two eNBs connecting to 5GC 520. In some implementations,the Xn interface may include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xncontrol plane (Xn-C) interface. The Xn-U may provide non-guaranteeddelivery of user plane PDUs and support/provide data forwarding and flowcontrol functionality. The Xn-C may provide management and errorhandling functionality, functionality to manage the Xn-C interface;mobility support for UE 501 in a connected mode (e.g., CM-CONNECTED)including functionality to manage the UE mobility for connected modebetween one or more RAN nodes 511. The mobility support may includecontext transfer from an old (source) serving RAN node 511 to new(target) serving RAN node 511; and control of user plane tunnels betweenold (source) serving RAN node 511 to new (target) serving RAN node 511.A protocol stack of the Xn-U may include a transport network layer builton Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and a GTP-U layer on top of aUDP and/or IP layer(s) to carry user plane PDUs. The Xn-C protocol stackmay include an application layer signaling protocol (referred to as XnApplication Protocol (Xn-AP)) and a transport network layer that isbuilt on SCTP. The SCTP may be on top of an IP layer, and may providethe guaranteed delivery of application layer messages. In the transportIP layer, point-to-point transmission is used to deliver the signalingPDUs. In other implementations, the Xn-U protocol stack and/or the Xn-Cprotocol stack may be same or similar to the user plane and/or controlplane protocol stack(s) shown and described herein.

The RAN 510 is shown to be communicatively coupled to a core network—insome embodiments, core network (CN) 520. The CN 520 may comprise aplurality of network elements 522, which are configured to offer variousdata and telecommunications services to customers/subscribers (e.g.,users of UEs 501) who are connected to the CN 520 via the RAN 510. Thecomponents of the CN 520 may be implemented in one physical node orseparate physical nodes including components to read and executeinstructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g.,a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some embodiments,NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the above-describednetwork node functions via executable instructions stored in one or morecomputer-readable storage mediums (described in further detail below). Alogical instantiation of the CN 520 may be referred to as a networkslice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 520 may bereferred to as a network sub-slice. NFV architectures andinfrastructures may be used to virtualize one or more network functions,alternatively performed by proprietary hardware, onto physical resourcescomprising a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storagehardware, or switches. In other words, NFV systems can be used toexecute virtual or reconfigurable implementations of one or more EPCcomponents/functions.

Generally, the application server 530 may be an element offeringapplications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g.,UMTS PS domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). The application server 530can also be configured to support one or more communication services(e.g., VoIP sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, socialnetworking services, etc.) for the UEs 501 via the EPC 520.

In embodiments, the CN 520 may be a 5GC (referred to as “5GC 520” or thelike), and the RAN 510 may be connected with the CN 520 via an NGinterface 513. In embodiments, the NG interface 513 may be split intotwo parts, an NG user plane (NG-U) interface 514, which carries trafficdata between the RAN nodes 511 and a UPF, and the S1 control plane(NG-C) interface 515, which is a signaling interface between the RANnodes 511 and AMFs. Embodiments where the CN 520 is a 5GC 520 arediscussed in more detail with regard to FIG. 7.

In embodiments, the CN 520 may be a 5G CN (referred to as “5GC 520” orthe like), while in other embodiments, the CN 520 may be an EPC). WhereCN 520 is an EPC (referred to as “EPC 520” or the like), the RAN 510 maybe connected with the CN 520 via an S1 interface 513. In embodiments,the S1 interface 513 may be split into two parts, an S1 user plane(S1-U) interface 514, which carries traffic data between the RAN nodes511 and the S-GW, and the S1-MME interface 515, which is a signalinginterface between the RAN nodes 511 and MMEs. An example architecturewherein the CN 520 is an EPC 520 is shown by FIG. 6.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example architecture of a system 600 including afirst CN 620, in accordance with various embodiments. In this example,system 600 may implement the LTE standard wherein the CN 620 is an EPC620 that corresponds with CN 520 of FIG. 5. Additionally, the UE 601 maybe the same or similar as the UEs 501 of FIG. 5, and the E-UTRAN 610 maybe a RAN that is the same or similar to the RAN 510 of FIG. 5, and whichmay include RAN nodes 511 discussed previously. The CN 620 may compriseMMEs 621, an S-GW 622, a P-GW 623, a HSS 624, and a SGSN 625.

The MMEs 621 may be similar in function to the control plane of legacySGSN, and may implement MM functions to keep track of the currentlocation of a UE 601. The MMEs 621 may perform various MM procedures tomanage mobility aspects in access such as gateway selection and trackingarea list management. MM (also referred to as “EPS MM” or “EMM” inE-UTRAN systems) may refer to all applicable procedures, methods, datastorage, etc. that are used to maintain knowledge about a presentlocation of the UE 601, provide user identity confidentiality, and/orperform other like services to users/subscribers. Each UE 601 and theMME 621 may include an MM or EMM sublayer, and an MM context may beestablished in the UE 601 and the MME 621 when an attach procedure issuccessfully completed. The MM context may be a data structure ordatabase object that stores MM-related information of the UE 601. TheMMEs 621 may be coupled with the HSS 624 via an S6a reference point,coupled with the SGSN 625 via an S3 reference point, and coupled withthe S-GW 622 via an S11 reference point.

The SGSN 625 may be a node that serves the UE 601 by tracking thelocation of an individual UE 601 and performing security functions. Inaddition, the SGSN 625 may perform Inter-EPC node signaling for mobilitybetween 2G/3G and E-UTRAN 3GPP access networks; PDN and S-GW selectionas specified by the MMEs 621; handling of UE 601 time zone functions asspecified by the MMEs 621; and MME selection for handovers to E-UTRAN3GPP access network. The S3 reference point between the MMEs 621 and theSGSN 625 may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3GPPaccess network mobility in idle and/or active states.

The HSS 624 may comprise a database for network users, includingsubscription-related information to support the network entities'handling of communication sessions. The EPC 620 may comprise one orseveral HSSs 624, depending on the number of mobile subscribers, on thecapacity of the equipment, on the organization of the network, etc. Forexample, the HSS 624 can provide support for routing/roaming,authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, locationdependencies, etc. An Sha reference point between the HSS 624 and theMMEs 621 may enable transfer of subscription and authentication data forauthenticating/authorizing user access to the EPC 620 between HSS 624and the MMEs 621.

The S-GW 622 may terminate the S1 interface 513 (“S1-U” in FIG. 6)toward the RAN 610, and routes data packets between the RAN 610 and theEPC 620. In addition, the S-GW 622 may be a local mobility anchor pointfor inter-RAN node handovers and also may provide an anchor forinter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawfulintercept, charging, and some policy enforcement. The S11 referencepoint between the S-GW 622 and the MMEs 621 may provide a control planebetween the MMEs 621 and the S-GW 622. The S-GW 622 may be coupled withthe P-GW 623 via an S5 reference point.

The P-GW 623 may terminate an SGi interface toward a PDN 630. The P-GW623 may route data packets between the EPC 620 and external networkssuch as a network including the application server 530 (alternativelyreferred to as an “AF”) via an IP interface 525 (see e.g., FIG. 5). Inembodiments, the P-GW 623 may be communicatively coupled to anapplication server (application server 530 of FIG. 5 or PDN 630 in FIG.6) via an IP communications interface 525 (see, e.g., FIG. 5). The S5reference point between the P-GW 623 and the S-GW 622 may provide userplane tunneling and tunnel management between the P-GW 623 and the S-GW622. The S5 reference point may also be used for S-GW 622 relocation dueto UE 601 mobility and if the S-GW 622 needs to connect to anon-collocated P-GW 623 for the required PDN connectivity. The P-GW 623may further include a node for policy enforcement and charging datacollection (e.g., PCEF (not shown)). Additionally, the SGi referencepoint between the P-GW 623 and the packet data network (PDN) 630 may bean operator external public, a private PDN, or an intra operator packetdata network, for example, for provision of IMS services. The P-GW 623may be coupled with a PCRF 626 via a Gx reference point.

PCRF 626 is the policy and charging control element of the EPC 620. In anon-roaming scenario, there may be a single PCRF 626 in the Home PublicLand Mobile Network (HPLMN) associated with a UE 601's Internet ProtocolConnectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session. In a roaming scenario withlocal breakout of traffic, there may be two PCRFs associated with a UE601's IP-CAN session, a Home PCRF (H-PCRF) within an HPLMN and a VisitedPCRF (V-PCRF) within a Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN). ThePCRF 626 may be communicatively coupled to the application server 630via the P-GW 623. The application server 630 may signal the PCRF 626 toindicate a new service flow and select the appropriate QoS and chargingparameters. The PCRF 626 may provision this rule into a PCEF (not shown)with the appropriate TFT and QCI, which commences the QoS and chargingas specified by the application server 630. The Gx reference pointbetween the PCRF 626 and the P-GW 623 may allow for the transfer of QoSpolicy and charging rules from the PCRF 626 to PCEF in the P-GW 623. AnRx reference point may reside between the PDN 630 (or “AF 630”) and thePCRF 626.

FIG. 7 illustrates an architecture of a system 700 including a second CN720 in accordance with various embodiments. The system 700 is shown toinclude a UE 701, which may be the same or similar to the UEs 501 and UE601 discussed previously; a (R)AN 710, which may be the same or similarto the RAN 510 and RAN 610 discussed previously, and which may includeRAN nodes 511 discussed previously; and a DN 703, which may be, forexample, operator services, Internet access or 3rd party services; and a5GC 720. The 5GC 720 may include an AUSF 722; an AMF 721; a SMF 724; aNEF 723; a PCF 726; a NRF 725; a UDM 727; an AF 728; a UPF 702; and aNSSF 729.

The UPF 702 may act as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RATmobility, an external PDU session point of interconnect to DN 703, and abranching point to support multi-homed PDU session. The UPF 702 may alsoperform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection,enforce the user plane part of policy rules, lawfully intercept packets(UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS handlingfor a user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL/DL rateenforcement), perform Uplink Traffic verification (e.g., SDF to QoS flowmapping), transport level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, andperform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notificationtriggering. UPF 702 may include an uplink classifier to support routingtraffic flows to a data network. The DN 703 may represent variousnetwork operator services, Internet access, or third party services. DN703 may include, or be similar to, application server 530 discussedpreviously. The UPF 702 may interact with the SMF 724 via an N4reference point between the SMF 724 and the UPF 702.

The AUSF 722 may store data for authentication of UE 701 and handleauthentication-related functionality. The AUSF 722 may facilitate acommon authentication framework for various access types. The AUSF 722may communicate with the AMF 721 via an N12 reference point between theAMF 721 and the AUSF 722; and may communicate with the UDM 727 via anN13 reference point between the UDM 727 and the AUSF 722. Additionally,the AUSF 722 may exhibit an Nausf service-based interface.

The AMF 721 may be responsible for registration management (e.g., forregistering UE 701, etc.), connection management, reachabilitymanagement, mobility management, and lawful interception of AMF-relatedevents, and access authentication and authorization. The AMF 721 may bea termination point for the N11 reference point between the AMF 721 andthe SMF 724. The AMF 721 may provide transport for SM messages betweenthe UE 701 and the SMF 724, and act as a transparent proxy for routingSM messages. AMF 721 may also provide transport for SMS messages betweenUE 701 and an SMSF (not shown by FIG. 7). AMF 721 may act as SEAF, whichmay include interaction with the AUSF 722 and the UE 701, receipt of anintermediate key that was established as a result of the UE 701authentication process. Where USIM based authentication is used, the AMF721 may retrieve the security material from the AUSF 722. AMF 721 mayalso include a SCM function, which receives a key from the SEA that ituses to derive access-network specific keys. Furthermore, AMF 721 may bea termination point of a RAN CP interface, which may include or be an N2reference point between the (R)AN 710 and the AMF 721; and the AMF 721may be a termination point of NAS (N1) signalling, and perform NASciphering and integrity protection.

AMF 721 may also support NAS signalling with a UE 701 over an N3 IWFinterface. The N3IWF may be used to provide access to untrustedentities. N3IWF may be a termination point for the N2 interface betweenthe (R)AN 710 and the AMF 721 for the control plane, and may be atermination point for the N3I reference point between the (R)AN 710 andthe UPF 702 for the user plane. As such, the AMF 721 may handle N2signalling from the SMF 724 and the AMF 721 for PDU sessions and QoS,encapsulate/de-encapsulate packets for IPSec and N3 tunnelling, mark N3user-plane packets in the uplink, and enforce QoS corresponding to N3packet marking taking into account QoS requirements associated with suchmarking received over N2. N3IWF may also relay uplink and downlinkcontrol-plane NAS signalling between the UE 701 and AMF 721 via an N1reference point between the UE 701 and the AMF 721, and relay uplink anddownlink user-plane packets between the UE 701 and UPF 702. The N3IWFalso provides mechanisms for IPsec tunnel establishment with the UE 701.The AMF 721 may exhibit an Namf service-based interface, and may be atermination point for an N14 reference point between two AMFs 721 and anN17 reference point between the AMF 721 and a 5G-EIR (not shown by FIG.7).

The UE 701 may need to register with the AMF 721 in order to receivenetwork services. RM is used to register or deregister the UE 701 withthe network (e.g., AMF 721), and establish a UE context in the network(e.g., AMF 721). The UE 701 may operate in an RM-REGISTERED state or anRM-DEREGISTERED state. In the RM-DEREGISTERED state, the UE 701 is notregistered with the network, and the UE context in AMF 721 holds novalid location or routing information for the UE 701 so the UE 701 isnot reachable by the AMF 721. In the RM-REGISTERED state, the UE 701 isregistered with the network, and the UE context in AMF 721 may hold avalid location or routing information for the UE 701 so the UE 701 isreachable by the AMF 721. In the RM-REGISTERED state, the UE 701 mayperform mobility Registration Update procedures, perform periodicRegistration Update procedures triggered by expiration of the periodicupdate timer (e.g., to notify the network that the UE 701 is stillactive), and perform a Registration Update procedure to update UEcapability information or to re-negotiate protocol parameters with thenetwork, among others.

The AMF 721 may store one or more RM contexts for the UE 701, where eachRM context is associated with a specific access to the network. The RMcontext may be a data structure, database object, etc. that indicates orstores, inter alia, a registration state per access type and theperiodic update timer. The AMF 721 may also store a 5GC MM context thatmay be the same or similar to the (E)MM context discussed previously. Invarious embodiments, the AMF 721 may store a CE mode B Restrictionparameter of the UE 701 in an associated MM context or RM context. TheAMF 721 may also derive the value, when needed, from the UE's usagesetting parameter already stored in the UE context (and/or MM/RMcontext).

CM may be used to establish and release a signaling connection betweenthe UE 701 and the AMF 721 over the N1 interface. The signalingconnection is used to enable NAS signaling exchange between the UE 701and the CN 720, and comprises both the signaling connection between theUE and the AN (e.g., RRC connection or UE-N3IWF connection for non-3GPPaccess) and the N2 connection for the UE 701 between the AN (e.g., RAN710) and the AMF 721. The UE 701 may operate in one of two CM states,CM-IDLE mode or CM-CONNECTED mode. When the UE 701 is operating in theCM-IDLE state/mode, the UE 701 may have no NAS signaling connectionestablished with the AMF 721 over the N1 interface, and there may be(R)AN 710 signaling connection (e.g., N2 and/or N3 connections) for theUE 701. When the UE 701 is operating in the CM-CONNECTED state/mode, theUE 701 may have an established NAS signaling connection with the AMF 721over the N1 interface, and there may be a (R)AN 710 signaling connection(e.g., N2 and/or N3 connections) for the UE 701. Establishment of an N2connection between the (R)AN 710 and the AMF 721 may cause the UE 701 totransition from CM-IDLE mode to CM-CONNECTED mode, and the UE 701 maytransition from the CM-CONNECTED mode to the CM-IDLE mode when N2signaling between the (R)AN 710 and the AMF 721 is released.

The SMF 724 may be responsible for SM (e.g., session establishment,modify and release, including tunnel maintain between UPF and AN node);UE IP address allocation and management (including optionalauthorization); selection and control of UP function; configuringtraffic steering at UPF to route traffic to proper destination;termination of interfaces toward policy control functions; controllingpart of policy enforcement and QoS; lawful intercept (for SM events andinterface to LI system); termination of SM parts of NAS messages;downlink data notification; initiating AN specific SM information, sentvia AMF over N2 to AN; and determining SSC mode of a session. SM mayrefer to management of a PDU session, and a PDU session or “session” mayrefer to a PDU connectivity service that provides or enables theexchange of PDUs between a UE 701 and a data network (DN) 703 identifiedby a Data Network Name (DNN). PDU sessions may be established upon UE701 request, modified upon UE 701 and 5GC 720 request, and released uponUE 701 and 5GC 720 request using NAS SM signaling exchanged over the N1reference point between the UE 701 and the SMF 724. Upon request from anapplication server, the 5GC 720 may trigger a specific application inthe UE 701. In response to receipt of the trigger message, the UE 701may pass the trigger message (or relevant parts/information of thetrigger message) to one or more identified applications in the UE 701.The identified application(s) in the UE 701 may establish a PDU sessionto a specific DNN. The SMF 724 may check whether the UE 701 requests arecompliant with user subscription information associated with the UE 701.In this regard, the SMF 724 may retrieve and/or request to receiveupdate notifications on SMF 724 level subscription data from the UDM727.

The SMF 724 may include the following roaming functionality: handlinglocal enforcement to apply QoS SLAB (VPLMN); charging data collectionand charging interface (VPLMN); lawful intercept (in VPLMN for SM eventsand interface to LI system); and support for interaction with externalDN for transport of signalling for PDU sessionauthorization/authentication by external DN. An N16 reference pointbetween two SMFs 724 may be included in the system 700, which may bebetween another SMF 724 in a visited network and the SMF 724 in the homenetwork in roaming scenarios. Additionally, the SMF 724 may exhibit theNsmf service-based interface.

The NEF 723 may provide means for securely exposing the services andcapabilities provided by 3GPP network functions for third party,internal exposure/re-exposure, Application Functions (e.g., AF 728),edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In such embodiments, theNEF 723 may authenticate, authorize, and/or throttle the AFs. NEF 723may also translate information exchanged with the AF 728 and informationexchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 723 maytranslate between an AF-Service-Identifier and an internal 5GCinformation. NEF 723 may also receive information from other networkfunctions (NFs) based on exposed capabilities of other networkfunctions. This information may be stored at the NEF 723 as structureddata, or at a data storage NF using standardized interfaces. The storedinformation can then be re-exposed by the NEF 723 to other NFs and AFs,and/or used for other purposes such as analytics. Additionally, the NEF723 may exhibit an Nnef service-based interface.

The NRF 725 may support service discovery functions, receive NFdiscovery requests from NF instances, and provide the information of thediscovered NF instances to the NF instances. NRF 725 also maintainsinformation of available NF instances and their supported services. Asused herein, the terms “instantiate,” “instantiation,” and the like mayrefer to the creation of an instance, and an “instance” may refer to aconcrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, duringexecution of program code. Additionally, the NRF 725 may exhibit theNnrf service-based interface.

The PCF 726 may provide policy rules to control plane function(s) toenforce them, and may also support unified policy framework to governnetwork behaviour. The PCF 726 may also implement an FE to accesssubscription information relevant for policy decisions in a UDR of theUDM 727. The PCF 726 may communicate with the AMF 721 via an N15reference point between the PCF 726 and the AMF 721, which may include aPCF 726 in a visited network and the AMF 721 in case of roamingscenarios. The PCF 726 may communicate with the AF 728 via an N5reference point between the PCF 726 and the AF 728; and with the SMF 724via an N7 reference point between the PCF 726 and the SMF 724. Thesystem 700 and/or CN 720 may also include an N24 reference point betweenthe PCF 726 (in the home network) and a PCF 726 in a visited network.Additionally, the PCF 726 may exhibit an Npcf service-based interface.

The UDM 727 may handle subscription-related information to support thenetwork entities' handling of communication sessions, and may storesubscription data of UE 701. For example, subscription data may becommunicated between the UDM 727 and the AMF 721 via an N8 referencepoint between the UDM 727 and the AMF. The UDM 727 may include twoparts, an application FE and a UDR (the FE and UDR are not shown by FIG.7). The UDR may store subscription data and policy data for the UDM 727and the PCF 726, and/or structured data for exposure and applicationdata (including PFDs for application detection, application requestinformation for multiple UEs 701) for the NEF 723. The Nudrservice-based interface may be exhibited by the UDR 221 to allow the UDM727, PCF 726, and NEF 723 to access a particular set of the stored data,as well as to read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe tonotification of relevant data changes in the UDR. The UDM may include aUDM-FE, which is in charge of processing credentials, locationmanagement, subscription management and so on. Several different frontends may serve the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FEaccesses subscription information stored in the UDR and performsauthentication credential processing, user identification handling,access authorization, registration/mobility management, and subscriptionmanagement. The UDR may interact with the SMF 724 via an N10 referencepoint between the UDM 727 and the SMF 724. UDM 727 may also support SMSmanagement, wherein an SMS-FE implements the similar application logicas discussed previously. Additionally, the UDM 727 may exhibit the Nudmservice-based interface.

The AF 728 may provide application influence on traffic routing, provideaccess to the NCE, and interact with the policy framework for policycontrol. The NCE may be a mechanism that allows the 5GC 720 and AF 728to provide information to each other via NEF 723, which may be used foredge computing implementations. In such implementations, the networkoperator and third party services may be hosted close to the UE 701access point of attachment to achieve an efficient service deliverythrough the reduced end-to-end latency and load on the transportnetwork. For edge computing implementations, the 5GC may select a UPF702 close to the UE 701 and execute traffic steering from the UPF 702 toDN 703 via the N6 interface. This may be based on the UE subscriptiondata, UE location, and information provided by the AF 728. In this way,the AF 728 may influence UPF (re)selection and traffic routing. Based onoperator deployment, when AF 728 is considered to be a trusted entity,the network operator may permit AF 728 to interact directly withrelevant NFs. Additionally, the AF 728 may exhibit an Naf service-basedinterface.

The NSSF 729 may select a set of network slice instances serving the UE701. The NSSF 729 may also determine allowed NSSAI and the mapping tothe subscribed S-NSSAIs, if needed. The NSSF 729 may also determine theAMF set to be used to serve the UE 701, or a list of candidate AMF(s)721 based on a suitable configuration and possibly by querying the NRF725. The selection of a set of network slice instances for the UE 701may be triggered by the AMF 721 with which the UE 701 is registered byinteracting with the NSSF 729, which may lead to a change of AMF 721.The NSSF 729 may interact with the AMF 721 via an N22 reference pointbetween AMF 721 and NSSF 729; and may communicate with another NSSF 729in a visited network via an N31 reference point (not shown by FIG. 7).Additionally, the NSSF 729 may exhibit an Nnssf service-based interface.

As discussed previously, the CN 720 may include an SMSF, which may beresponsible for SMS subscription checking and verification, and relayingSM messages to/from the UE 701 to/from other entities, such as anSMS-GMSC/IWMSC/SMS-router. The SMS may also interact with AMF 721 andUDM 727 for a notification procedure that the UE 701 is available forSMS transfer (e.g., set a UE not reachable flag, and notifying UDM 727when UE 701 is available for SMS).

The CN 120 may also include other elements that are not shown by FIG. 7,such as a Data Storage system/architecture, a 5G-EIR, a SEPP, and thelike. The Data Storage system may include a SDSF, an UDSF, and/or thelike. Any NF may store and retrieve unstructured data into/from the UDSF(e.g., UE contexts), via N18 reference point between any NF and the UDSF(not shown by FIG. 7). Individual NFs may share a UDSF for storing theirrespective unstructured data or individual NFs may each have their ownUDSF located at or near the individual NFs. Additionally, the UDSF mayexhibit an Nudsf service-based interface (not shown by FIG. 7). The5G-EIR may be an NF that checks the status of PEI for determiningwhether particular equipment/entities are blacklisted from the network;and the SEPP may be a non-transparent proxy that performs topologyhiding, message filtering, and policing on inter-PLMN control planeinterfaces.

Additionally, there may be many more reference points and/orservice-based interfaces between the NF services in the NFs; however,these interfaces and reference points have been omitted from FIG. 7 forclarity. In one example, the CN 720 may include an Nx interface, whichis an inter-CN interface between the MME (e.g., MME 621) and the AMF 721in order to enable interworking between CN 720 and CN 620. Other exampleinterfaces/reference points may include an N5g-EIR service-basedinterface exhibited by a 5G-EIR, an N27 reference point between the NRFin the visited network and the NRF in the home network; and an N31reference point between the NSSF in the visited network and the NSSF inthe home network.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of infrastructure equipment 800 inaccordance with various embodiments. The infrastructure equipment 800(or “system 800”) may be implemented as a base station, radio head, RANnode such as the RAN nodes 511 and/or AP 506 shown and describedpreviously, application server(s) 530, and/or any other element/devicediscussed herein. In other examples, the system 800 could be implementedin or by a UE.

The system 800 includes application circuitry 805, baseband circuitry810, one or more radio front end modules (RFEMs) 815, memory circuitry820, power management integrated circuitry (PMIC) 825, power teecircuitry 830, network controller circuitry 835, network interfaceconnector 840, satellite positioning circuitry 845, and user interface850. In some embodiments, the device 800 may include additional elementssuch as, for example, memory/storage, display, camera, sensor, orinput/output (I/O) interface. In other embodiments, the componentsdescribed below may be included in more than one device. For example,said circuitries may be separately included in more than one device forCRAN, vBBU, or other like implementations.

Application circuitry 805 includes circuitry such as, but not limited toone or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and one ormore of low drop-out voltage regulators (LDOs), interrupt controllers,serial interfaces such as SPI, I²C or universal programmable serialinterface module, real time clock (RTC), timer-counters includinginterval and watchdog timers, general purpose input/output (I/O or IO),memory card controllers such as Secure Digital (SD) MultiMediaCard (MMC)or similar, Universal Serial Bus (USB) interfaces, Mobile IndustryProcessor Interface (MIPI) interfaces and Joint Test Access Group (JTAG)test access ports. The processors (or cores) of the applicationcircuitry 805 may be coupled with or may include memory/storage elementsand may be configured to execute instructions stored in thememory/storage to enable various applications or operating systems torun on the system 800. In some implementations, the memory/storageelements may be on-chip memory circuitry, which may include any suitablevolatile and/or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM,Flash memory, solid-state memory, and/or any other type of memory devicetechnology, such as those discussed herein.

The processor(s) of application circuitry 805 may include, for example,one or more processor cores (CPUs), one or more application processors,one or more graphics processing units (GPUs), one or more reducedinstruction set computing (RISC) processors, one or more Acorn RISCMachine (ARM) processors, one or more complex instruction set computing(CISC) processors, one or more digital signal processors (DSP), one ormore FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or moremicroprocessors or controllers, or any suitable combination thereof. Insome embodiments, the application circuitry 805 may comprise, or may be,a special-purpose processor/controller to operate according to thevarious embodiments herein. As examples, the processor(s) of applicationcircuitry 805 may include one or more Intel Pentium®, Core®, or Xeon®processor(s); Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Ryzen® processor(s),Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), or Epyc® processors; ARM-basedprocessor(s) licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd. such as the ARM Cortex-Afamily of processors and the ThunderX2® provided by Cavium(™), Inc.; aMIPS-based design from MIPS Technologies, Inc. such as MIPS WarriorP-class processors; and/or the like. In some embodiments, the system 800may not utilize application circuitry 805, and instead may include aspecial-purpose processor/controller to process IP data received from anEPC or 5GC, for example.

In some implementations, the application circuitry 805 may include oneor more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors,programmable processing devices, or the like. The one or more hardwareaccelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and/or deeplearning (DL) accelerators. As examples, the programmable processingdevices may be one or more a field-programmable devices (FPDs) such asfield-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and the like; programmable logicdevices (PLDs) such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs(HCPLDs), and the like; ASICs such as structured ASICs and the like;programmable SoCs (PSoCs); and the like. In such implementations, thecircuitry of application circuitry 805 may comprise logic blocks orlogic fabric, and other interconnected resources that may be programmedto perform various functions, such as the procedures, methods,functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In suchembodiments, the circuitry of application circuitry 805 may includememory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flashmemory, static memory (e.g., static random access memory (SRAM),anti-fuses, etc.)) used to store logic blocks, logic fabric, data, etc.in look-up-tables (LUTs) and the like.

The baseband circuitry 810 may be implemented, for example, as asolder-down substrate including one or more integrated circuits, asingle packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board or amulti-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Thevarious hardware electronic elements of baseband circuitry 810 arediscussed infra with regard to FIG. 10.

User interface circuitry 850 may include one or more user interfacesdesigned to enable user interaction with the system 800 or peripheralcomponent interfaces designed to enable peripheral component interactionwith the system 800. User interfaces may include, but are not limitedto, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), oneor more indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)), a physicalkeyboard or keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touchscreen, speakers orother audio emitting devices, microphones, a printer, a scanner, aheadset, a display screen or display device, etc. Peripheral componentinterfaces may include, but are not limited to, a nonvolatile memoryport, a universal serial bus (USB) port, an audio jack, a power supplyinterface, etc.

The radio front end modules (RFEMs) 815 may comprise a millimeter wave(mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-mmWave radio frequency integratedcircuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or more sub-mmWaveRFICs may be physically separated from the mmWave RFEM. The RFICs mayinclude connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see e.g.,antenna array 1011 of FIG. 10 infra), and the RFEM may be connected tomultiple antennas. In alternative implementations, both mmWave andsub-mmWave radio functions may be implemented in the same physical RFEM815, which incorporates both mmWave antennas and sub-mmWave.

The memory circuitry 820 may include one or more of volatile memoryincluding dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and/or synchronous dynamicrandom access memory (SDRAM), and nonvolatile memory (NVM) includinghigh-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as Flashmemory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistiverandom access memory (MRAM), etc., and may incorporate thethree-dimensional (3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memories from Intel® andMicron®. Memory circuitry 820 may be implemented as one or more ofsolder down packaged integrated circuits, socketed memory modules andplug-in memory cards.

The PMIC 825 may include voltage regulators, surge protectors, poweralarm detection circuitry, and one or more backup power sources such asa battery or capacitor. The power alarm detection circuitry may detectone or more of brown out (under-voltage) and surge (over-voltage)conditions. The power tee circuitry 830 may provide for electrical powerdrawn from a network cable to provide both power supply and dataconnectivity to the infrastructure equipment 800 using a single cable.

The network controller circuitry 835 may provide connectivity to anetwork using a standard network interface protocol such as Ethernet,Ethernet over GRE Tunnels, Ethernet over Multiprotocol Label Switching(MPLS), or some other suitable protocol. Network connectivity may beprovided to/from the infrastructure equipment 800 via network interfaceconnector 840 using a physical connection, which may be electrical(commonly referred to as a “copper interconnect”), optical, or wireless.The network controller circuitry 835 may include one or more dedicatedprocessors and/or FPGAs to communicate using one or more of theaforementioned protocols. In some implementations, the networkcontroller circuitry 835 may include multiple controllers to provideconnectivity to other networks using the same or different protocols.

The positioning circuitry 845 includes circuitry to receive and decodesignals transmitted/broadcasted by a positioning network of a globalnavigation satellite system (GNSS). Examples of navigation satelliteconstellations (or GNSS) include United States' Global PositioningSystem (GPS), Russia's Global Navigation System (GLONASS), the EuropeanUnion's Galileo system, China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, aregional navigation system or GNSS augmentation system (e.g., Navigationwith Indian Constellation (NAVIC), Japan's Quasi-Zenith Satellite System(QZSS), France's Doppler Orbitography and Radio-positioning Integratedby Satellite (DORIS), etc.), or the like. The positioning circuitry 845comprises various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devicessuch as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, and the like tofacilitate OTA communications) to communicate with components of apositioning network, such as navigation satellite constellation nodes.In some embodiments, the positioning circuitry 845 may include aMicro-Technology for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (Micro-PNT) ICthat uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking/estimationwithout GNSS assistance. The positioning circuitry 845 may also be partof, or interact with, the baseband circuitry 810 and/or RFEMs 815 tocommunicate with the nodes and components of the positioning network.The positioning circuitry 845 may also provide position data and/or timedata to the application circuitry 805, which may use the data tosynchronize operations with various infrastructure (e.g., RAN nodes 511,etc.), or the like.

The components shown by FIG. 8 may communicate with one another usinginterface circuitry, which may include any number of bus and/orinterconnect (IX) technologies such as industry standard architecture(ISA), extended ISA (EISA), peripheral component interconnect (PCI),peripheral component interconnect extended (PCIx), PCI express (PCIe),or any number of other technologies. The bus/IX may be a proprietarybus, for example, used in a SoC based system. Other bus/IX systems maybe included, such as an I²C interface, an SPI interface, point to pointinterfaces, and a power bus, among others.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a platform 900 (or “device 900”) inaccordance with various embodiments. In embodiments, the computerplatform 900 may be suitable for use as UEs 501, 502, 601, applicationservers 530, and/or any other element/device discussed herein. Theplatform 900 may include any combinations of the components shown in theexample. The components of platform 900 may be implemented as integratedcircuits (ICs), portions thereof, discrete electronic devices, or othermodules, logic, hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereofadapted in the computer platform 900, or as components otherwiseincorporated within a chassis of a larger system. The block diagram ofFIG. 9 is intended to show a high level view of components of thecomputer platform 900. However, some of the components shown may beomitted, additional components may be present, and different arrangementof the components shown may occur in other implementations.

Application circuitry 905 includes circuitry such as, but not limited toone or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and one ormore of LDOs, interrupt controllers, serial interfaces such as SPI, I²Cor universal programmable serial interface module, RTC, timer-countersincluding interval and watchdog timers, general purpose I/O, memory cardcontrollers such as SD MMC or similar, USB interfaces, MIPI interfaces,and JTAG test access ports. The processors (or cores) of the applicationcircuitry 905 may be coupled with or may include memory/storage elementsand may be configured to execute instructions stored in thememory/storage to enable various applications or operating systems torun on the system 900. In some implementations, the memory/storageelements may be on-chip memory circuitry, which may include any suitablevolatile and/or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM,Flash memory, solid-state memory, and/or any other type of memory devicetechnology, such as those discussed herein.

The processor(s) of application circuitry 805 may include, for example,one or more processor cores, one or more application processors, one ormore GPUs, one or more RISC processors, one or more ARM processors, oneor more CISC processors, one or more DSP, one or more FPGAs, one or morePLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, amultithreaded processor, an ultra-low voltage processor, an embeddedprocessor, some other known processing element, or any suitablecombination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuitry 805may comprise, or may be, a special-purpose processor/controller tooperate according to the various embodiments herein.

As examples, the processor(s) of application circuitry 905 may includean Intel® Architecture Core™ based processor, such as a Quark™, anAtom™, an i3, an i5, an i7, or an MCU-class processor, or another suchprocessor available from Intel® Corporation, Santa Clara, Calif. Theprocessors of the application circuitry 905 may also be one or more ofAdvanced Micro Devices (AMD) Ryzen® processor(s) or AcceleratedProcessing Units (APUs); A5-A9 processor(s) from Apple® Inc.,Snapdragon™ processor(s) from Qualcomm® Technologies, Inc., TexasInstruments, Inc.® Open Multimedia Applications Platform (OMAP)™processor(s); a MIPS-based design from MIPS Technologies, Inc. such asMIPS Warrior M-class, Warrior I-class, and Warrior P-class processors;an ARM-based design licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as the ARMCortex-A, Cortex-R, and Cortex-M family of processors; or the like. Insome implementations, the application circuitry 905 may be a part of asystem on a chip (SoC) in which the application circuitry 905 and othercomponents are formed into a single integrated circuit, or a singlepackage, such as the Edison™ or Galileo™ SoC boards from Intel®Corporation.

Additionally or alternatively, application circuitry 905 may includecircuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more a field-programmabledevices (FPDs) such as FPGAs and the like; programmable logic devices(PLDs) such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), andthe like; ASICs such as structured ASICs and the like; programmable SoCs(PSoCs); and the like. In such embodiments, the circuitry of applicationcircuitry 905 may comprise logic blocks or logic fabric, and otherinterconnected resources that may be programmed to perform variousfunctions, such as the procedures, methods, functions, etc. of thevarious embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuitryof application circuitry 905 may include memory cells (e.g., erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory(e.g., static random access memory (SRAM), anti-fuses, etc.)) used tostore logic blocks, logic fabric, data, etc. in look-up tables (LUTs)and the like.

The baseband circuitry 910 may be implemented, for example, as asolder-down substrate including one or more integrated circuits, asingle packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board or amulti-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Thevarious hardware electronic elements of baseband circuitry 910 arediscussed infra with regard to FIG. 10.

The RFEMs 915 may comprise a millimeter wave (mmWave) RFEM and one ormore sub-mmWave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In someimplementations, the one or more sub-mmWave RFICs may be physicallyseparated from the mmWave RFEM. The RFICs may include connections to oneor more antennas or antenna arrays (see e.g., antenna array 1011 of FIG.10 infra), and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. Inalternative implementations, both mmWave and sub-mmWave radio functionsmay be implemented in the same physical RFEM 915, which incorporatesboth mmWave antennas and sub-mmWave.

The memory circuitry 920 may include any number and type of memorydevices used to provide for a given amount of system memory. Asexamples, the memory circuitry 920 may include one or more of volatilememory including random access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM) and/orsynchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM), and nonvolatile memory (NVM) includinghigh-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as Flashmemory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistiverandom access memory (MRAM), etc. The memory circuitry 920 may bedeveloped in accordance with a Joint Electron Devices EngineeringCouncil (JEDEC) low power double data rate (LPDDR)-based design, such asLPDDR2, LPDDR3, LPDDR4, or the like. Memory circuitry 920 may beimplemented as one or more of solder down packaged integrated circuits,single die package (SDP), dual die package (DDP) or quad die package(Q17P), socketed memory modules, dual inline memory modules (DIMMs)including microDIMMs or MiniDIMMs, and/or soldered onto a motherboardvia a ball grid array (BGA). In low power implementations, the memorycircuitry 920 may be on-die memory or registers associated with theapplication circuitry 905. To provide for persistent storage ofinformation such as data, applications, operating systems and so forth,memory circuitry 920 may include one or more mass storage devices, whichmay include, inter alia, a solid state disk drive (SSDD), hard diskdrive (HDD), a micro HDD, resistance change memories, phase changememories, holographic memories, or chemical memories, among others. Forexample, the computer platform 900 may incorporate the three-dimensional(3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memories from Intel® and Micron®.

Removable memory circuitry 923 may include devices, circuitry,enclosures/housings, ports or receptacles, etc. used to couple portabledata storage devices with the platform 900. These portable data storagedevices may be used for mass storage purposes, and may include, forexample, flash memory cards (e.g., Secure Digital (SD) cards, microSDcards, xD picture cards, and the like), and USB flash drives, opticaldiscs, external HDDs, and the like.

The platform 900 may also include interface circuitry (not shown) thatis used to connect external devices with the platform 900. The externaldevices connected to the platform 900 via the interface circuitryinclude sensor circuitry 921 and electro-mechanical components (EMCs)922, as well as removable memory devices coupled to removable memorycircuitry 923.

The sensor circuitry 921 include devices, modules, or subsystems whosepurpose is to detect events or changes in its environment and send theinformation (sensor data) about the detected events to some other adevice, module, subsystem, etc. Examples of such sensors include, interalia, inertia measurement units (IMUS) comprising accelerometers,gyroscopes, and/or magnetometers; microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)or nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) comprising 3-axisaccelerometers, 3-axis gyroscopes, and/or magnetometers; level sensors;flow sensors; temperature sensors (e.g., thermistors); pressure sensors;barometric pressure sensors; gravimeters; altimeters; image capturedevices (e.g., cameras or lensless apertures); light detection andranging (LiDAR) sensors; proximity sensors (e.g., infrared radiationdetector and the like), depth sensors, ambient light sensors, ultrasonictransceivers; microphones or other like audio capture devices; etc.

EMCs 922 include devices, modules, or subsystems whose purpose is toenable platform 900 to change its state, position, and/or orientation,or move or control a mechanism or (sub)system. Additionally, EMCs 922may be configured to generate and send messages/signalling to othercomponents of the platform 900 to indicate a current state of the EMCs922. Examples of the EMCs 922 include one or more power switches, relaysincluding electromechanical relays (EMRs) and/or solid state relays(SSRs), actuators (e.g., valve actuators, etc.), an audible soundgenerator, a visual warning device, motors (e.g., DC motors, steppermotors, etc.), wheels, thrusters, propellers, claws, clamps, hooks,and/or other like electro-mechanical components. In embodiments,platform 900 is configured to operate one or more EMCs 922 based on oneor more captured events and/or instructions or control signals receivedfrom a service provider and/or various clients.

In some implementations, the interface circuitry may connect theplatform 900 with positioning circuitry 945. The positioning circuitry945 includes circuitry to receive and decode signalstransmitted/broadcasted by a positioning network of a GNSS. Examples ofnavigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) include United States'GPS, Russia's GLONASS, the European Union's Galileo system, China'sBeiDou Navigation Satellite System, a regional navigation system or GNSSaugmentation system (e.g., NAVIC), Japan's QZSS, France's DORIS, etc.),or the like. The positioning circuitry 945 comprises various hardwareelements (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches, filters,amplifiers, antenna elements, and the like to facilitate OTAcommunications) to communicate with components of a positioning network,such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some embodiments,the positioning circuitry 945 may include a Micro-PNT IC that uses amaster timing clock to perform position tracking/estimation without GNSSassistance. The positioning circuitry 945 may also be part of, orinteract with, the baseband circuitry 810 and/or RFEMs 915 tocommunicate with the nodes and components of the positioning network.The positioning circuitry 945 may also provide position data and/or timedata to the application circuitry 905, which may use the data tosynchronize operations with various infrastructure (e.g., radio basestations), for turn-by-turn navigation applications, or the like

In some implementations, the interface circuitry may connect theplatform 900 with Near-Field Communication (NFC) circuitry 940. NFCcircuitry 940 is configured to provide contactless, short-rangecommunications based on radio frequency identification (RFID) standards,wherein magnetic field induction is used to enable communication betweenNFC circuitry 940 and NFC-enabled devices external to the platform 900(e.g., an “NFC touchpoint”). NFC circuitry 940 comprises an NFCcontroller coupled with an antenna element and a processor coupled withthe NFC controller. The NFC controller may be a chip/IC providing NFCfunctionalities to the NFC circuitry 940 by executing NFC controllerfirmware and an NFC stack. The NFC stack may be executed by theprocessor to control the NFC controller, and the NFC controller firmwaremay be executed by the NFC controller to control the antenna element toemit short-range RF signals. The RF signals may power a passive NFC tag(e.g., a microchip embedded in a sticker or wristband) to transmitstored data to the NFC circuitry 940, or initiate data transfer betweenthe NFC circuitry 940 and another active NFC device (e.g., a smartphoneor an NFC-enabled POS terminal) that is proximate to the platform 900.

The driver circuitry 946 may include software and hardware elements thatoperate to control particular devices that are embedded in the platform900, attached to the platform 900, or otherwise communicatively coupledwith the platform 900. The driver circuitry 946 may include individualdrivers allowing other components of the platform 900 to interact withor control various input/output (I/O) devices that may be presentwithin, or connected to, the platform 900. For example, driver circuitry946 may include a display driver to control and allow access to adisplay device, a touchscreen driver to control and allow access to atouchscreen interface of the platform 900, sensor drivers to obtainsensor readings of sensor circuitry 921 and control and allow access tosensor circuitry 921, EMC drivers to obtain actuator positions of theEMCs 922 and/or control and allow access to the EMCs 922, a cameradriver to control and allow access to an embedded image capture device,audio drivers to control and allow access to one or more audio devices.

The power management integrated circuitry (PMIC) 925 (also referred toas “power management circuitry 925”) may manage power provided tovarious components of the platform 900. In particular, with respect tothe baseband circuitry 910, the PMIC 925 may control power-sourceselection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-to-DC conversion.The PMIC 925 may often be included when the platform 900 is capable ofbeing powered by a battery 930, for example, when the device is includedin a UE 501, 502, 601.

In some embodiments, the PMIC 925 may control, or otherwise be part of,various power saving mechanisms of the platform 900. For example, if theplatform 900 is in an RRC_Connected state, where it is still connectedto the RAN node as it expects to receive traffic shortly, then it mayenter a state known as Discontinuous Reception Mode (DRX) after a periodof inactivity. During this state, the platform 900 may power down forbrief intervals of time and thus save power. If there is no data trafficactivity for an extended period of time, then the platform 900 maytransition off to an RRC_Idle state, where it disconnects from thenetwork and does not perform operations such as channel qualityfeedback, handover, etc. The platform 900 goes into a very low powerstate and it performs paging where again it periodically wakes up tolisten to the network and then powers down again. The platform 900 maynot receive data in this state; in order to receive data, it musttransition back to RRC_Connected state. An additional power saving modemay allow a device to be unavailable to the network for periods longerthan a paging interval (ranging from seconds to a few hours). Duringthis time, the device is totally unreachable to the network and maypower down completely. Any data sent during this time incurs a largedelay and it is assumed the delay is acceptable.

A battery 930 may power the platform 900, although in some examples theplatform 900 may be mounted deployed in a fixed location, and may have apower supply coupled to an electrical grid. The battery 930 may be alithium ion battery, a metal-air battery, such as a zinc-air battery, analuminum-air battery, a lithium-air battery, and the like. In someimplementations, such as in V2X applications, the battery 930 may be atypical lead-acid automotive battery.

In some implementations, the battery 930 may be a “smart battery,” whichincludes or is coupled with a Battery Management System (BMS) or batterymonitoring integrated circuitry. The BMS may be included in the platform900 to track the state of charge (SoCh) of the battery 930. The BMS maybe used to monitor other parameters of the battery 930 to providefailure predictions, such as the state of health (SoH) and the state offunction (SoF) of the battery 930. The BMS may communicate theinformation of the battery 930 to the application circuitry 905 or othercomponents of the platform 900. The BMS may also include ananalog-to-digital (ADC) convertor that allows the application circuitry905 to directly monitor the voltage of the battery 930 or the currentflow from the battery 930. The battery parameters may be used todetermine actions that the platform 900 may perform, such astransmission frequency, network operation, sensing frequency, and thelike.

A power block, or other power supply coupled to an electrical grid maybe coupled with the BMS to charge the battery 930. In some examples, thepower block XS30 may be replaced with a wireless power receiver toobtain the power wirelessly, for example, through a loop antenna in thecomputer platform 900. In these examples, a wireless battery chargingcircuit may be included in the BMS. The specific charging circuitschosen may depend on the size of the battery 930, and thus, the currentrequired. The charging may be performed using the Airfuel standardpromulgated by the Airfuel Alliance, the Qi wireless charging standardpromulgated by the Wireless Power Consortium, or the Rezence chargingstandard promulgated by the Alliance for Wireless Power, among others.

User interface circuitry 950 includes various input/output (I/O) devicespresent within, or connected to, the platform 900, and includes one ormore user interfaces designed to enable user interaction with theplatform 900 and/or peripheral component interfaces designed to enableperipheral component interaction with the platform 900. The userinterface circuitry 950 includes input device circuitry and outputdevice circuitry. Input device circuitry includes any physical orvirtual means for accepting an input including, inter alia, one or morephysical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), a physical keyboard,keypad, mouse, touchpad, touchscreen, microphones, scanner, headset,and/or the like. The output device circuitry includes any physical orvirtual means for showing information or otherwise conveyinginformation, such as sensor readings, actuator position(s), or otherlike information. Output device circuitry may include any number and/orcombinations of audio or visual display, including, inter alia, one ormore simple visual outputs/indicators (e.g., binary status indicators(e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)) and multi-character visual outputs,or more complex outputs such as display devices or touchscreens (e.g.,Liquid Chrystal Displays (LCD), LED displays, quantum dot displays,projectors, etc.), with the output of characters, graphics, multimediaobjects, and the like being generated or produced from the operation ofthe platform 900. The output device circuitry may also include speakersor other audio emitting devices, printer(s), and/or the like. In someembodiments, the sensor circuitry 921 may be used as the input devicecircuitry (e.g., an image capture device, motion capture device, or thelike) and one or more EMCs may be used as the output device circuitry(e.g., an actuator to provide haptic feedback or the like). In anotherexample, NFC circuitry comprising an NFC controller coupled with anantenna element and a processing device may be included to readelectronic tags and/or connect with another NFC-enabled device.Peripheral component interfaces may include, but are not limited to, anon-volatile memory port, a USB port, an audio jack, a power supplyinterface, etc.

Although not shown, the components of platform 900 may communicate withone another using a suitable bus or interconnect (IX) technology, whichmay include any number of technologies, including ISA, EISA, PCI, PCIx,PCIe, a Time-Trigger Protocol (TTP) system, a FlexRay system, or anynumber of other technologies. The bus/IX may be a proprietary bus/IX,for example, used in a SoC based system. Other bus/IX systems may beincluded, such as an I²C interface, an SPI interface, point-to-pointinterfaces, and a power bus, among others.

FIG. 10 illustrates example components of baseband circuitry 1010 andradio front end modules (RFEM) 1015 in accordance with variousembodiments. The baseband circuitry 1010 corresponds to the basebandcircuitry 810 and 910 of FIGS. 8 and 9, respectively. The RFEM 1015corresponds to the RFEM 815 and 915 of FIGS. 8 and 9, respectively. Asshown, the RFEMs 1015 may include Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 1006,front-end module (FEM) circuitry 1008, antenna array 1011 coupledtogether at least as shown.

The baseband circuitry 1010 includes circuitry and/or control logicconfigured to carry out various radio/network protocol and radio controlfunctions that enable communication with one or more radio networks viathe RF circuitry 1006. The radio control functions may include, but arenot limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radiofrequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, modulation/demodulationcircuitry of the baseband circuitry 1010 may include Fast-FourierTransform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping/demappingfunctionality. In some embodiments, encoding/decoding circuitry of thebaseband circuitry 1010 may include convolution, tail-bitingconvolution, turbo, Viterbi, or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC)encoder/decoder functionality. Embodiments of modulation/demodulationand encoder/decoder functionality are not limited to these examples andmay include other suitable functionality in other embodiments. Thebaseband circuitry 1010 is configured to process baseband signalsreceived from a receive signal path of the RF circuitry 1006 and togenerate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry1006. The baseband circuitry 1010 is configured to interface withapplication circuitry 805/905 (see FIGS. 8 and 9) for generation andprocessing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of theRF circuitry 1006. The baseband circuitry 1010 may handle various radiocontrol functions.

The aforementioned circuitry and/or control logic of the basebandcircuitry 1010 may include one or more single or multi-core processors.For example, the one or more processors may include a 3G basebandprocessor 1004A, a 4G/LTE baseband processor 1004B, a 5G/NR basebandprocessor 1004C, or some other baseband processor(s) 1004D for otherexisting generations, generations in development or to be developed inthe future (e.g., sixth generation (6G), etc.). In other embodiments,some or all of the functionality of baseband processors 1004A-D may beincluded in modules stored in the memory 1004G and executed via aCentral Processing Unit (CPU) 1004E. In other embodiments, some or allof the functionality of baseband processors 1004A-D may be provided ashardware accelerators (e.g., FPGAs, ASICs, etc.) loaded with theappropriate bit streams or logic blocks stored in respective memorycells. In various embodiments, the memory 1004G may store program codeof a real-time OS (RTOS), which when executed by the CPU 1004E (or otherbaseband processor), is to cause the CPU 1004E (or other basebandprocessor) to manage resources of the baseband circuitry 1010, scheduletasks, etc. Examples of the RTOS may include Operating System Embedded(OSE)™ provided by Enea®, Nucleus RTOS™ provided by Mentor Graphics®,Versatile Real-Time Executive (VRTX) provided by Mentor Graphics®,ThreadX™ provided by Express Logic®, FreeRTOS, REX OS provided byQualcomm®, OKL4 provided by Open Kernel (OK) Labs®, or any othersuitable RTOS, such as those discussed herein. In addition, the basebandcircuitry 1010 includes one or more audio digital signal processor(s)(DSP) 1004F. The audio DSP(s) 1004F include elements forcompression/decompression and echo cancellation and may include othersuitable processing elements in other embodiments.

In some embodiments, each of the processors 1004A-1004E includerespective memory interfaces to send/receive data to/from the memory1004G. The baseband circuitry 1010 may further include one or moreinterfaces to communicatively couple to other circuitries/devices, suchas an interface to send/receive data to/from memory external to thebaseband circuitry 1010; an application circuitry interface tosend/receive data to/from the application circuitry 805/905 of FIGS.8-10); an RF circuitry interface to send/receive data to/from RFcircuitry 1006 of FIG. 10; a wireless hardware connectivity interface tosend/receive data to/from one or more wireless hardware elements (e.g.,Near Field Communication (NFC) components, Bluetooth®/Bluetooth® LowEnergy components, Wi-Fi® components, and/or the like); and a powermanagement interface to send/receive power or control signals to/fromthe PMIC 925.

In alternate embodiments (which may be combined with the above describedembodiments), baseband circuitry 1010 comprises one or more digitalbaseband systems, which are coupled with one another via an interconnectsubsystem and to a CPU subsystem, an audio subsystem, and an interfacesubsystem. The digital baseband subsystems may also be coupled to adigital baseband interface and a mixed-signal baseband subsystem viaanother interconnect subsystem. Each of the interconnect subsystems mayinclude a bus system, point-to-point connections, network-on-chip (NOC)structures, and/or some other suitable bus or interconnect technology,such as those discussed herein. The audio subsystem may include DSPcircuitry, buffer memory, program memory, speech processing acceleratorcircuitry, data converter circuitry such as analog-to-digital anddigital-to-analog converter circuitry, analog circuitry including one ormore of amplifiers and filters, and/or other like components. In anaspect of the present disclosure, baseband circuitry 1010 may includeprotocol processing circuitry with one or more instances of controlcircuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the digitalbaseband circuitry and/or radio frequency circuitry (e.g., the radiofront end modules 1015).

Although not shown by FIG. 10, in some embodiments, the basebandcircuitry 1010 includes individual processing device(s) to operate oneor more wireless communication protocols (e.g., a “multi-protocolbaseband processor” or “protocol processing circuitry”) and individualprocessing device(s) to implement PHY layer functions. In theseembodiments, the PHY layer functions include the aforementioned radiocontrol functions. In these embodiments, the protocol processingcircuitry operates or implements various protocol layers/entities of oneor more wireless communication protocols. In a first example, theprotocol processing circuitry may operate LTE protocol entities and/or5G/NR protocol entities when the baseband circuitry 1010 and/or RFcircuitry 1006 are part of mmWave communication circuitry or some othersuitable cellular communication circuitry. In the first example, theprotocol processing circuitry would operate MAC, RLC, PDCP, SDAP, RRC,and NAS functions. In a second example, the protocol processingcircuitry may operate one or more IEEE-based protocols when the basebandcircuitry 1010 and/or RF circuitry 1006 are part of a Wi-Ficommunication system. In the second example, the protocol processingcircuitry would operate Wi-Fi MAC and logical link control (LLC)functions. The protocol processing circuitry may include one or morememory structures (e.g., 1004G) to store program code and data foroperating the protocol functions, as well as one or more processingcores to execute the program code and perform various operations usingthe data. The baseband circuitry 1010 may also support radiocommunications for more than one wireless protocol.

The various hardware elements of the baseband circuitry 1010 discussedherein may be implemented, for example, as a solder-down substrateincluding one or more integrated circuits (ICs), a single packaged ICsoldered to a main circuit board or a multi-chip module containing twoor more ICs. In one example, the components of the baseband circuitry1010 may be suitably combined in a single chip or chipset, or disposedon a same circuit board. In another example, some or all of theconstituent components of the baseband circuitry 1010 and RF circuitry1006 may be implemented together such as, for example, a system on achip (SoC) or System-in-Package (SiP). In another example, some or allof the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 1010 may beimplemented as a separate SoC that is communicatively coupled with andRF circuitry 1006 (or multiple instances of RF circuitry 1006). In yetanother example, some or all of the constituent components of thebaseband circuitry 1010 and the application circuitry 805/905 may beimplemented together as individual SoCs mounted to a same circuit board(e.g., a “multi-chip package”).

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1010 may provide forcommunication compatible with one or more radio technologies. Forexample, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 1010 may supportcommunication with an E-UTRAN or other WMAN, a WLAN, a WPAN. Embodimentsin which the baseband circuitry 1010 is configured to support radiocommunications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to asmulti-mode baseband circuitry.

RF circuitry 1006 may enable communication with wireless networks usingmodulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. Invarious embodiments, the RF circuitry 1006 may include switches,filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication with thewireless network. RF circuitry 1006 may include a receive signal path,which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from theFEM circuitry 1008 and provide baseband signals to the basebandcircuitry 1010. RF circuitry 1006 may also include a transmit signalpath, which may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signalsprovided by the baseband circuitry 1010 and provide RF output signals tothe FEM circuitry 1008 for transmission.

In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 1006may include mixer circuitry 1006 a, amplifier circuitry 1006 b andfilter circuitry 1006 c. In some embodiments, the transmit signal pathof the RF circuitry 1006 may include filter circuitry 1006 c and mixercircuitry 1006 a. RF circuitry 1006 may also include synthesizercircuitry 1006 d for synthesizing a frequency for use by the mixercircuitry 1006 a of the receive signal path and the transmit signalpath. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1006 a of the receivesignal path may be configured to down-convert RF signals received fromthe FEM circuitry 1008 based on the synthesized frequency provided bysynthesizer circuitry 1006 d. The amplifier circuitry 1006 b may beconfigured to amplify the down-converted signals and the filtercircuitry 1006 c may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or band-pass filter(BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-convertedsignals to generate output baseband signals. Output baseband signals maybe provided to the baseband circuitry 1010 for further processing. Insome embodiments, the output baseband signals may be zero-frequencybaseband signals, although this is not a requirement. In someembodiments, mixer circuitry 1006 a of the receive signal path maycomprise passive mixers, although the scope of the embodiments is notlimited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1006 a of the transmit signalpath may be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on thesynthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 1006 d togenerate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry 1008. The basebandsignals may be provided by the baseband circuitry 1010 and may befiltered by filter circuitry 1006 c.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1006 a of the receive signalpath and the mixer circuitry 1006 a of the transmit signal path mayinclude two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadraturedownconversion and upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, themixer circuitry 1006 a of the receive signal path and the mixercircuitry 1006 a of the transmit signal path may include two or moremixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley imagerejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 1006 a of thereceive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1006 a of the transmitsignal path may be arranged for direct downconversion and directupconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry1006 a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1006 a of thetransmit signal path may be configured for super-heterodyne operation.

In some embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input basebandsignals may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of theembodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternateembodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signalsmay be digital baseband signals. In these alternate embodiments, the RFcircuitry 1006 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) anddigital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry1010 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RFcircuitry 1006.

In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio IC circuitry may beprovided for processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope ofthe embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 1006 d may be afractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+1 synthesizer, although thescope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other typesof frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizercircuitry 1006 d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequencymultiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with afrequency divider.

The synthesizer circuitry 1006 d may be configured to synthesize anoutput frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 1006 a of the RFcircuitry 1006 based on a frequency input and a divider control input.In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 1006 d may be afractional N/N+1 synthesizer.

In some embodiments, frequency input may be provided by a voltagecontrolled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement. Dividercontrol input may be provided by either the baseband circuitry 1010 orthe application circuitry 805/905 depending on the desired outputfrequency. In some embodiments, a divider control input (e.g., N) may bedetermined from a look-up table based on a channel indicated by theapplication circuitry 805/905.

Synthesizer circuitry 1006 d of the RF circuitry 1006 may include adivider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer and a phaseaccumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual modulusdivider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a digital phaseaccumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured todivide the input signal by either N or N+1 (e.g., based on a carry out)to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, theDLL may include a set of cascaded, tunable, delay elements, a phasedetector, a charge pump and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments,the delay elements may be configured to break a VCO period up into Ndequal packets of phase, where Nd is the number of delay elements in thedelay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to helpensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuitry 1006 d may be configured togenerate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in otherembodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrierfrequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrierfrequency) and used in conjunction with quadrature generator and dividercircuitry to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency withmultiple different phases with respect to each other. In someembodiments, the output frequency may be a LO frequency (fLO). In someembodiments, the RF circuitry 1006 may include an IQ/polar converter.

FEM circuitry 1008 may include a receive signal path, which may includecircuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from antennaarray 1011, amplify the received signals and provide the amplifiedversions of the received signals to the RF circuitry 1006 for furtherprocessing. FEM circuitry 1008 may also include a transmit signal path,which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals fortransmission provided by the RF circuitry 1006 for transmission by oneor more of antenna elements of antenna array 1011. In variousembodiments, the amplification through the transmit or receive signalpaths may be done solely in the RF circuitry 1006, solely in the FEMcircuitry 1008, or in both the RF circuitry 1006 and the FEM circuitry1008.

In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 1008 may include a TX/RX switchto switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEMcircuitry 1008 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signalpath. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry 1008 may include anLNA to amplify received RF signals and provide the amplified received RFsignals as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 1006). The transmitsignal path of the FEM circuitry 1008 may include a power amplifier (PA)to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 1006), andone or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequent transmissionby one or more antenna elements of the antenna array 1011.

The antenna array 1011 comprises one or more antenna elements, each ofwhich is configured convert electrical signals into radio waves totravel through the air and to convert received radio waves intoelectrical signals. For example, digital baseband signals provided bythe baseband circuitry 1010 is converted into analog RF signals (e.g.,modulated waveform) that will be amplified and transmitted via theantenna elements of the antenna array 1011 including one or more antennaelements (not shown). The antenna elements may be omnidirectional,direction, or a combination thereof. The antenna elements may be formedin a multitude of arranges as are known and/or discussed herein. Theantenna array 1011 may comprise microstrip antennas or printed antennasthat are fabricated on the surface of one or more printed circuitboards. The antenna array 1011 may be formed in as a patch of metal foil(e.g., a patch antenna) in a variety of shapes, and may be coupled withthe RF circuitry 1006 and/or FEM circuitry 1008 using metal transmissionlines or the like.

Processors of the application circuitry 805/905 and processors of thebaseband circuitry 1010 may be used to execute elements of one or moreinstances of a protocol stack. For example, processors of the basebandcircuitry 1010, alone or in combination, may be used execute Layer 3,Layer 2, or Layer 1 functionality, while processors of the applicationcircuitry 805/905 may utilize data (e.g., packet data) received fromthese layers and further execute Layer 4 functionality (e.g., TCP andUDP layers). As referred to herein, Layer 3 may comprise a RRC layer,described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 2 maycomprise a MAC layer, an RLC layer, and a PDCP layer, described infurther detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 1 may comprise a PHYlayer of a UE/RAN node, described in further detail below.

FIG. 11 illustrates various protocol functions that may be implementedin a wireless communication device according to various embodiments. Inparticular, FIG. 11 includes an arrangement 1100 showinginterconnections between various protocol layers/entities. The followingdescription of FIG. 11 is provided for various protocol layers/entitiesthat operate in conjunction with the 5G/NR system standards and LTEsystem standards, but some or all of the aspects of FIG. 11 may beapplicable to other wireless communication network systems as well.

The protocol layers of arrangement 1100 may include one or more of PHY1110, MAC 1120, RLC 1130, PDCP 1140, SDAP 1147, RRC 1155, and NAS layer1157, in addition to other higher layer functions not illustrated. Theprotocol layers may include one or more service access points (e.g.,items 1159, 1156, 1150, 1149, 1145, 1135, 1125, and 1115 in FIG. 11)that may provide communication between two or more protocol layers.

The PHY 1110 may transmit and receive physical layer signals 1105 thatmay be received from or transmitted to one or more other communicationdevices. The physical layer signals 1105 may comprise one or morephysical channels, such as those discussed herein. The PHY 1110 mayfurther perform link adaptation or adaptive modulation and coding (AMC),power control, cell search (e.g., for initial synchronization andhandover purposes), and other measurements used by higher layers, suchas the RRC 1155. The PHY 1110 may still further perform error detectionon the transport channels, forward error correction (FEC)coding/decoding of the transport channels, modulation/demodulation ofphysical channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping onto physicalchannels, and MIMO antenna processing. In embodiments, an instance ofPHY 1110 may process requests from and provide indications to aninstance of MAC 1120 via one or more PHY-SAP 1115. According to someembodiments, requests and indications communicated via PHY-SAP 1115 maycomprise one or more transport channels.

Instance(s) of MAC 1120 may process requests from, and provideindications to, an instance of RLC 1130 via one or more MAC-SAPs 1125.These requests and indications communicated via the MAC-SAP 1125 maycomprise one or more logical channels. The MAC 1120 may perform mappingbetween the logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing of MACSDUs from one or more logical channels onto TBs to be delivered to PHY1110 via the transport channels, de-multiplexing MAC SDUs to one or morelogical channels from TBs delivered from the PHY 1110 via transportchannels, multiplexing MAC SDUs onto TBs, scheduling informationreporting, error correction through HARQ, and logical channelprioritization.

Instance(s) of RLC 1130 may process requests from and provideindications to an instance of PDCP 1140 via one or more radio linkcontrol service access points (RLC-SAP) 1135. These requests andindications communicated via RLC-SAP 1135 may comprise one or more RLCchannels. The RLC 1130 may operate in a plurality of modes of operation,including: Transparent Mode (TM), Unacknowledged Mode (UM), andAcknowledged Mode (AM). The RLC 1130 may execute transfer of upper layerprotocol data units (PDUs), error correction through automatic repeatrequest (ARQ) for AM data transfers, and concatenation, segmentation andreassembly of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transfers. The RLC 1130 mayalso execute re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs for AM data transfers,reorder RLC data PDUs for UM and AM data transfers, detect duplicatedata for UM and AM data transfers, discard RLC SDUs for UM and AM datatransfers, detect protocol errors for AM data transfers, and perform RLCre-establishment. Instance(s) of PDCP 1140 may process requests from andprovide indications to instance(s) of RRC 1155 and/or instance(s) ofSDAP 1147 via one or more packet data convergence protocol serviceaccess points (PDCP-SAP) 1145. These requests and indicationscommunicated via PDCP-SAP 1145 may comprise one or more radio bearers.The PDCP 1140 may execute header compression and decompression of IPdata, maintain PDCP Sequence Numbers (SNs), perform in-sequence deliveryof upper layer PDUs at re-establishment of lower layers, eliminateduplicates of lower layer SDUs at re-establishment of lower layers forradio bearers mapped on RLC AM, cipher and decipher control plane data,perform integrity protection and integrity verification of control planedata, control timer-based discard of data, and perform securityoperations (e.g., ciphering, deciphering, integrity protection,integrity verification, etc.).

Instance(s) of SDAP 1147 may process requests from and provideindications to one or more higher layer protocol entities via one ormore SDAP-SAP 1149. These requests and indications communicated viaSDAP-SAP 1149 may comprise one or more QoS flows. The SDAP 1147 may mapQoS flows to DRBs, and vice versa, and may also mark QFIs in DL and ULpackets. A single SDAP entity 1147 may be configured for an individualPDU session. In the UL direction, the NG-RAN 510 may control the mappingof QoS Flows to DRB(s) in two different ways, reflective mapping orexplicit mapping. For reflective mapping, the SDAP 1147 of a UE 501 maymonitor the QFIs of the DL packets for each DRB, and may apply the samemapping for packets flowing in the UL direction. For a DRB, the SDAP1147 of the UE 501 may map the UL packets belonging to the QoS flows(s)corresponding to the QoS flow ID(s) and PDU session observed in the DLpackets for that DRB. To enable reflective mapping, the NG-RAN 710 maymark DL packets over the Uu interface with a QoS flow ID. The explicitmapping may involve the RRC 1155 configuring the SDAP 1147 with anexplicit QoS flow to DRB mapping rule, which may be stored and followedby the SDAP 1147. In embodiments, the SDAP 1147 may only be used in NRimplementations and may not be used in LTE implementations.

The RRC 1155 may configure, via one or more management service accesspoints (M-SAP), aspects of one or more protocol layers, which mayinclude one or more instances of PHY 1110, MAC 1120, RLC 1130, PDCP 1140and SDAP 1147. In embodiments, an instance of RRC 1155 may processrequests from and provide indications to one or more NAS entities 1157via one or more RRC-SAPs 1156. The main services and functions of theRRC 1155 may include broadcast of system information (e.g., included inMIBs or SIBs related to the NAS), broadcast of system informationrelated to the access stratum (AS), paging, establishment, maintenanceand release of an RRC connection between the UE 501 and RAN 510 (e.g.,RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connectionmodification, and RRC connection release), establishment, configuration,maintenance and release of point to point Radio Bearers, securityfunctions including key management, inter-RAT mobility, and measurementconfiguration for UE measurement reporting. The MIBs and SIBs maycomprise one or more IEs, which may each comprise individual data fieldsor data structures.

The NAS 1157 may form the highest stratum of the control plane betweenthe UE 501 and the AMF 721. The NAS 1157 may support the mobility of theUEs 501 and the session management procedures to establish and maintainIP connectivity between the UE 501 and a P-GW in LTE systems.

According to various embodiments, one or more protocol entities ofarrangement 1100 may be implemented in UEs 501, RAN nodes 511, AMF 721in NR implementations or MME 621 in LTE implementations, UPF 702 in NRimplementations or S-GW 622 and P-GW 623 in LTE implementations, or thelike to be used for control plane or user plane communications protocolstack between the aforementioned devices. In such embodiments, one ormore protocol entities that may be implemented in one or more of UE 501,gNB 511, AMF 721, etc. may communicate with a respective peer protocolentity that may be implemented in or on another device using theservices of respective lower layer protocol entities to perform suchcommunication. In some embodiments, a gNB-CU of the gNB 511 may host theRRC 1155, SDAP 1147, and PDCP 1140 of the gNB that controls theoperation of one or more gNB-DUs, and the gNB-DUs of the gNB 511 mayeach host the RLC 1130, MAC 1120, and PHY 1110 of the gNB 511.

In a first example, a control plane protocol stack may comprise, inorder from highest layer to lowest layer, NAS 1157, RRC 1155, PDCP 1140,RLC 1130, MAC 1120, and PHY 1110. In this example, upper layers 1160 maybe built on top of the NAS 1157, which includes an IP layer 1161, anSCTP 1162, and an application layer signaling protocol (AP) 1163.

In NR implementations, the AP 1163 may be an NG application protocollayer (NGAP or NG-AP) 1163 for the NG interface 513 defined between theNG-RAN node 511 and the AMF 721, or the AP 1163 may be an Xn applicationprotocol layer (XnAP or Xn-AP) 1163 for the Xn interface 512 that isdefined between two or more RAN nodes 511.

The NG-AP 1163 may support the functions of the NG interface 513 and maycomprise Elementary Procedures (EPs). An NG-AP EP may be a unit ofinteraction between the NG-RAN node 511 and the AMF 721. The NG-AP 1163services may comprise two groups: UE-associated services (e.g., servicesrelated to a UE 501, 502) and non-UE-associated services (e.g., servicesrelated to the whole NG interface instance between the NG-RAN node 511and AMF 721). These services may include functions including, but notlimited to: a paging function for the sending of paging requests toNG-RAN nodes 511 involved in a particular paging area; a UE contextmanagement function for allowing the AMF 721 to establish, modify,and/or release a UE context in the AMF 721 and the NG-RAN node 511; amobility function for UEs 501 in ECM-CONNECTED mode for intra-system HOsto support mobility within NG-RAN and inter-system HOs to supportmobility from/to EPS systems; a NAS Signaling Transport function fortransporting or rerouting NAS messages between UE 501 and AMF 721; a NASnode selection function for determining an association between the AMF721 and the UE 501; NG interface management function(s) for setting upthe NG interface and monitoring for errors over the NG interface; awarning message transmission function for providing means to transferwarning messages via NG interface or cancel ongoing broadcast of warningmessages; a Configuration Transfer function for requesting andtransferring of RAN configuration information (e.g., SON information,performance measurement (PM) data, etc.) between two RAN nodes 511 viaCN 520; and/or other like functions.

The XnAP 1163 may support the functions of the Xn interface 512 and maycomprise XnAP basic mobility procedures and XnAP global procedures. TheXnAP basic mobility procedures may comprise procedures used to handle UEmobility within the NG RAN 511 (or E-UTRAN 610), such as handoverpreparation and cancellation procedures, SN Status Transfer procedures,UE context retrieval and UE context release procedures, RAN pagingprocedures, dual connectivity related procedures, and the like. The XnAPglobal procedures may comprise procedures that are not related to aspecific UE 501, such as Xn interface setup and reset procedures, NG-RANupdate procedures, cell activation procedures, and the like.

In LTE implementations, the AP 1163 may be an S1 Application Protocollayer (S1-AP) 1163 for the S1 interface 513 defined between an E-UTRANnode 511 and an MME, or the AP 1163 may be an X2 application protocollayer (X2AP or X2-AP) 1163 for the X2 interface 512 that is definedbetween two or more E-UTRAN nodes 511.

The S1 Application Protocol layer (S1-AP) 1163 may support the functionsof the S1 interface, and similar to the NG-AP discussed previously, theS1-AP may comprise S1-AP EPs. An S1-AP EP may be a unit of interactionbetween the E-UTRAN node 511 and an MME 621within an LTE CN 520. TheS1-AP 1163 services may comprise two groups: UE-associated services andnon UE-associated services. These services perform functions including,but not limited to: E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB) management, UEcapability indication, mobility, NAS signaling transport, RANInformation Management (RIM), and configuration transfer.

The X2AP 1163 may support the functions of the X2 interface 512 and maycomprise X2AP basic mobility procedures and X2AP global procedures. TheX2AP basic mobility procedures may comprise procedures used to handle UEmobility within the E-UTRAN 520, such as handover preparation andcancellation procedures, SN Status Transfer procedures, UE contextretrieval and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, dualconnectivity related procedures, and the like. The X2AP globalprocedures may comprise procedures that are not related to a specific UE501, such as X2 interface setup and reset procedures, load indicationprocedures, error indication procedures, cell activation procedures, andthe like.

The SCTP layer (alternatively referred to as the SCTP/IP layer) 1162 mayprovide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages (e.g., NGAP orXnAP messages in NR implementations, or S1-AP or X2AP messages in LTEimplementations). The SCTP 1162 may ensure reliable delivery ofsignaling messages between the RAN node 511 and the AMF 721/MME 621based, in part, on the IP protocol, supported by the IP 1161. TheInternet Protocol layer (IP) 1161 may be used to perform packetaddressing and routing functionality. In some implementations the IPlayer 1161 may use point-to-point transmission to deliver and conveyPDUs. In this regard, the RAN node 511 may comprise L2 and L1 layercommunication links (e.g., wired or wireless) with the MME/AMF toexchange information.

In a second example, a user plane protocol stack may comprise, in orderfrom highest layer to lowest layer, SDAP 1147, PDCP 1140, RLC 1130, MAC1120, and PHY 1110. The user plane protocol stack may be used forcommunication between the UE 501, the RAN node 511, and UPF 702 in NRimplementations or an S-GW 622 and P-GW 623 in LTE implementations. Inthis example, upper layers 1151 may be built on top of the SDAP 1147,and may include a user datagram protocol (UDP) and IP security layer(UDP/IP) 1152, a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocolfor the user plane layer (GTP-U) 1153, and a User Plane PDU layer (UPPDU) 1163.

The transport network layer 1154 (also referred to as a “transportlayer”) may be built on IP transport, and the GTP-U 1153 may be used ontop of the UDP/IP layer 1152 (comprising a UDP layer and IP layer) tocarry user plane PDUs (UP-PDUs). The IP layer (also referred to as the“Internet layer”) may be used to perform packet addressing and routingfunctionality. The IP layer may assign IP addresses to user data packetsin any of IPv4, IPv6, or PPP formats, for example.

The GTP-U 1153 may be used for carrying user data within the GPRS corenetwork and between the radio access network and the core network. Theuser data transported can be packets in any of IPv4, IPv6, or PPPformats, for example. The UDP/IP 1152 may provide checksums for dataintegrity, port numbers for addressing different functions at the sourceand destination, and encryption and authentication on the selected dataflows. The RAN node 511 and the S-GW 622 may utilize an S1-U interfaceto exchange user plane data via a protocol stack comprising an L1 layer(e.g., PHY 1110), an L2 layer (e.g., MAC 1120, RLC 1130, PDCP 1140,and/or SDAP 1147), the UDP/IP layer 1152, and the GTP-U 1153. The S-GW622 and the P-GW 623 may utilize an S5/S8a interface to exchange userplane data via a protocol stack comprising an L1 layer, an L2 layer, theUDP/IP layer 1152, and the GTP-U 1153. As discussed previously, NASprotocols may support the mobility of the UE 501 and the sessionmanagement procedures to establish and maintain IP connectivity betweenthe UE 501 and the P-GW 623.

Moreover, although not shown by FIG. 11, an application layer may bepresent above the AP 1163 and/or the transport network layer 1154. Theapplication layer may be a layer in which a user of the UE 501, RAN node511, or other network element interacts with software applications beingexecuted, for example, by application circuitry 805 or applicationcircuitry 905, respectively. The application layer may also provide oneor more interfaces for software applications to interact withcommunications systems of the UE 501 or RAN node 511, such as thebaseband circuitry 1010. In some implementations the IP layer and/or theapplication layer may provide the same or similar functionality aslayers 5-7, or portions thereof, of the Open Systems Interconnection(OSI) model (e.g., OSI Layer 7—the application layer, OSI Layer 6—thepresentation layer, and OSI Layer 5—the session layer).

FIG. 12 illustrates components of a core network in accordance withvarious embodiments. The components of the CN 620 may be implemented inone physical node or separate physical nodes including components toread and execute instructions from a machine-readable orcomputer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readablestorage medium). In embodiments, the components of CN 720 may beimplemented in a same or similar manner as discussed herein with regardto the components of CN 620. In some embodiments, NFV is utilized tovirtualize any or all of the above-described network node functions viaexecutable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storagemediums (described in further detail below). A logical instantiation ofthe CN 620 may be referred to as a network slice 1201, and individuallogical instantiations of the CN 620 may provide specific networkcapabilities and network characteristics. A logical instantiation of aportion of the CN 620 may be referred to as a network sub-slice 1202(e.g., the network sub-slice 1202 is shown to include the P-GW 623 andthe PCRF 626).

As used herein, the terms “instantiate,” “instantiation,” and the likemay refer to the creation of an instance, and an “instance” may refer toa concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, duringexecution of program code. A network instance may refer to informationidentifying a domain, which may be used for traffic detection androuting in case of different IP domains or overlapping IP addresses. Anetwork slice instance may refer to a set of network functions (NFs)instances and the resources (e.g., compute, storage, and networkingresources) required to deploy the network slice.

With respect to 5G systems (see, e.g., FIG. 7), a network slice alwayscomprises a RAN part and a CN part. The support of network slicingrelies on the principle that traffic for different slices is handled bydifferent PDU sessions. The network can realize the different networkslices by scheduling and also by providing different L1/L2configurations. The UE 701 provides assistance information for networkslice selection in an appropriate RRC message, if it has been providedby NAS. While the network can support large number of slices, the UEneed not support more than 8 slices simultaneously.

A network slice may include the CN 720 control plane and user plane NFs,NG-RANs 710 in a serving PLMN, and a N3IWF functions in the servingPLMN. Individual network slices may have different S-NSSAI and/or mayhave different SSTs. NSSAI includes one or more S-NSSAIs, and eachnetwork slice is uniquely identified by an S-NSSAI. Network slices maydiffer for supported features and network functions optimizations,and/or multiple network slice instances may deliver the sameservice/features but for different groups of UEs 701 (e.g., enterpriseusers). For example, individual network slices may deliver differentcommitted service(s) and/or may be dedicated to a particular customer orenterprise. In this example, each network slice may have differentS-NSSAIs with the same SST but with different slice differentiators.Additionally, a single UE may be served with one or more network sliceinstances simultaneously via a 5G AN and associated with eight differentS-NSSAIs. Moreover, an AMF 721 instance serving an individual UE 701 maybelong to each of the network slice instances serving that UE.

Network Slicing in the NG-RAN 710 involves RAN slice awareness. RANslice awareness includes differentiated handling of traffic fordifferent network slices, which have been pre-configured. Sliceawareness in the NG-RAN 710 is introduced at the PDU session level byindicating the S-NSSAI corresponding to a PDU session in all signalingthat includes PDU session resource information. How the NG-RAN 710supports the slice enabling in terms of NG-RAN functions (e.g., the setof network functions that comprise each slice) is implementationdependent. The NG-RAN 710 selects the RAN part of the network sliceusing assistance information provided by the UE 701 or the 5GC 720,which unambiguously identifies one or more of the pre-configured networkslices in the PLMN. The NG-RAN 710 also supports resource management andpolicy enforcement between slices as per SLAs. A single NG-RAN node maysupport multiple slices, and the NG-RAN 710 may also apply anappropriate RRM policy for the SLA in place to each supported slice. TheNG-RAN 710 may also support QoS differentiation within a slice.

The NG-RAN 710 may also use the UE assistance information for theselection of an AMF 721 during an initial attach, if available. TheNG-RAN 710 uses the assistance information for routing the initial NASto an AMF 721. If the NG-RAN 710 is unable to select an AMF 721 usingthe assistance information, or the UE 701 does not provide any suchinformation, the NG-RAN 710 sends the NAS signaling to a default AMF721, which may be among a pool of AMFs 721. For subsequent accesses, theUE 701 provides a temp ID, which is assigned to the UE 701 by the 5GC720, to enable the NG-RAN 710 to route the NAS message to theappropriate AMF 721 as long as the temp ID is valid. The NG-RAN 710 isaware of, and can reach, the AMF 721 that is associated with the tempID. Otherwise, the method for initial attach applies.

The NG-RAN 710 supports resource isolation between slices. NG-RAN 710resource isolation may be achieved by means of RRM policies andprotection mechanisms that should avoid that shortage of sharedresources if one slice breaks the service level agreement for anotherslice. In some implementations, it is possible to fully dedicate NG-RAN710 resources to a certain slice. How NG-RAN 710 supports resourceisolation is implementation dependent.

Some slices may be available only in part of the network. Awareness inthe NG-RAN 710 of the slices supported in the cells of its neighbors maybe beneficial for inter-frequency mobility in connected mode. The sliceavailability may not change within the UE's registration area. TheNG-RAN 710 and the 5GC 720 are responsible to handle a service requestfor a slice that may or may not be available in a given area. Admissionor rejection of access to a slice may depend on factors such as supportfor the slice, availability of resources, support of the requestedservice by NG-RAN 710.

The UE 701 may be associated with multiple network slicessimultaneously. In case the UE 701 is associated with multiple slicessimultaneously, only one signaling connection is maintained, and forintra-frequency cell reselection, the UE 701 tries to camp on the bestcell. For inter-frequency cell reselection, dedicated priorities can beused to control the frequency on which the UE 701 camps. The 5GC 720 isto validate that the UE 701 has the rights to access a network slice.Prior to receiving an Initial Context Setup Request message, the NG-RAN710 may be allowed to apply some provisional/local policies, based onawareness of a particular slice that the UE 701 is requesting to access.During the initial context setup, the NG-RAN 710 is informed of theslice for which resources are being requested.

NFV architectures and infrastructures may be used to virtualize one ormore NFs, alternatively performed by proprietary hardware, onto physicalresources comprising a combination of industry-standard server hardware,storage hardware, or switches. In other words, NFV systems can be usedto execute virtual or reconfigurable implementations of one or more EPCcomponents/functions.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to someexample embodiments, of a system 1300 to support NFV. The system 1300 isillustrated as including a VIM 1302, an NFVI 1304, an VNFM 1306, VNFs1308, an EM 1310, an NFVO 1312, and a NM 1314.

The VIM 1302 manages the resources of the NFVI 1304. The NFVI 1304 caninclude physical or virtual resources and applications (includinghypervisors) used to execute the system 1300. The VIM 1302 may managethe life cycle of virtual resources with the NFVI 1304 (e.g., creation,maintenance, and tear down of VMs associated with one or more physicalresources), track VM instances, track performance, fault and security ofVM instances and associated physical resources, and expose VM instancesand associated physical resources to other management systems.

The VNFM 1306 may manage the VNFs 1308. The VNFs 1308 may be used toexecute EPC components/functions. The VNFM 1306 may manage the lifecycle of the VNFs 1308 and track performance, fault and security of thevirtual aspects of VNFs 1308. The EM 1310 may track the performance,fault and security of the functional aspects of VNFs 1308. The trackingdata from the VNFM 1306 and the EM 1310 may comprise, for example, PMdata used by the VIM 1302 or the NFVI 1304. Both the VNFM 1306 and theEM 1310 can scale up/down the quantity of VNFs of the system 1300.

The NFVO 1312 may coordinate, authorize, release and engage resources ofthe NFVI 1304 in order to provide the requested service (e.g., toexecute an EPC function, component, or slice). The NM 1314 may provide apackage of end-user functions with the responsibility for the managementof a network, which may include network elements with VNFs,non-virtualized network functions, or both (management of the VNFs mayoccur via the EM 1310).

FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to someexample embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readableor computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readablestorage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein, such as the operations described with respect to FIG.15. Specifically, FIG. 14 shows a diagrammatic representation ofhardware resources 1400 including one or more processors (or processorcores) 1410, one or more memory/storage devices 1420, and one or morecommunication resources 1430, each of which may be communicativelycoupled via a bus 1440. For embodiments where node virtualization (e.g.,NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 1402 may be executed to provide anexecution environment for one or more network slices/sub-slices toutilize the hardware resources 1400.

The processors 1410 may include, for example, a processor 1412 and aprocessor 1414. The processor(s) 1410 may be, for example, a centralprocessing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC)processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, agraphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, anASIC, an FPGA, a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), anotherprocessor (including those discussed herein), or any suitablecombination thereof.

The memory/storage devices 1420 may include main memory, disk storage,or any suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage devices 1420 mayinclude, but are not limited to, any type of volatile or nonvolatilememory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random accessmemory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flashmemory, solid-state storage, etc.

The communication resources 1430 may include interconnection or networkinterface components or other suitable devices to communicate with oneor more peripheral devices 1404 or one or more databases 1406 via anetwork 1408. For example, the communication resources 1430 may includewired communication components (e.g., for coupling via USB), cellularcommunication components, NFC components, Bluetooth® (or Bluetooth® LowEnergy) components, Wi-Fi® components, and other communicationcomponents.

Instructions 1450 may comprise software, a program, an application, anapplet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of theprocessors 1410 to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein. The instructions 1450 may reside, completely orpartially, within at least one of the processors 1410 (e.g., within theprocessor's cache memory), the memory/storage devices 1420, or anysuitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of theinstructions 1450 may be transferred to the hardware resources 1400 fromany combination of the peripheral devices 1404 or the databases 1406.Accordingly, the memory of processors 1410, the memory/storage devices1420, the peripheral devices 1404, and the databases 1406 are examplesof computer-readable and machine-readable media.

FIG. 15 illustrates a flow diagram illustration of a contention windowsize (CWS) adjustment method 1500, according to some embodiments.

According to some embodiments, method 1500 includes determining acontention window size (CWS) of an uplink/downlink (UL/DL) communicationchannel in a new radio unlicensed (NR-U) spectrum, as illustrated instep 1502. According to some embodiments, method 1500 may furtherinclude adjusting the CWS. In some aspects, this operation may beperformed by defining a reference UL/DL burst set at a predeterminedtime length independent form a subcarrier spacing and partially spanningan UL/DL burst. In some other aspects, this may be further performed bycontaining one or more code block groups (CBGs) in the reference UL/DLburst. The adjusting may be illustrated in step 1504. According to someembodiments, method 1500 may further include scheduling a transmissionof an UL/DL communication in the NR-U spectrum based on the adjustedCWS, as illustrated in step 1506.

According to other embodiments not illustrated in FIG. 15, method 1500may further include counting one or more negative acknowledgments(NACKs) from a signal received from a user equipment (UE), where inresponse to a NACK of the one or more NACKs being received for at leastone of the one or more CBGs specific to a transmission block (TB),counting a CBG hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback for theTB within the reference UL/DL burst as a NACK, and adjusting the CWSbased on the counted NACKs.

According to some embodiments, method 1500 may further include countinga hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback individually for eachone of the one or more CBGs specific to a transmission block (TB) aseither an acknowledgement (ACK) or a negative acknowledgement (NACK).and adjusting the CWS based on the counted NACKs.

According to some embodiments, method 1500 may further include countinga hybrid automatic repeat request (HARD) feedback individually for eachone of the one or more CBGs specific to a transmission block (TB) aseither an acknowledgement (ACK) or a negative acknowledgement (NACK) andassigning the TB to an ACK/NACK ratio score.

According to some embodiments, method 1500 may further include adjustingthe CWS for an entire TB in response to the ACK/NACK ratio score beingabove a predetermined threshold, as described herein, e.g., 80%.

According to some embodiments, method 1500 may further include omittingthe TB from the adjusted CWS in response to the ACK/NACK ratio scorebeing below a predetermined threshold, as described herein, e.g., 80% orgreater.

According to some embodiments, method 1500 may further includeperforming a license assisted access (LAA) category 4 listen before talk(LBT) procedure before initiating a retransmission, as described herein.

According to some embodiments, method 1500 may further include adjustingthe CWS independently of a DTX for cross-carrier scheduling. Forexample, as described in example 15 below, DTX may be ignored for CWSadjustment for cross-carier scheduling.

According to some embodiments, method 1500 may further include countinga discontinuous transmission feedback (DTX) as a negativeacknowledgement (NACK) for self-scheduling. For example, as described inexample 14 below, for self-scheduling, DTX may be considered as anindication of collision and as a NACK in the matter of the CWSadjustment mechanism.

According to some embodiments, method 1500 may further includedetermining whether a user equipment (UE) scheduled to receive acommunication from a base station utilizes a CBG-based transmissionmethod or a transmission block (TB) based transmission method andadjusting the CWS based on the determined transmission method for theUE.

As described above, aspects of the present technology may include thegathering and use of data available from various sources, e.g., toimprove or enhance functionality. The present disclosure contemplatesthat in some instances, this gathered data may include personalinformation data that uniquely identifies or can be used to contact orlocate a specific person. Such personal information data can includedemographic data, location-based data, telephone numbers, emailaddresses, Twitter ID's, home addresses, data or records relating to auser's health or level of fitness (e.g., vital signs measurements,medication information, exercise information), date of birth, or anyother identifying or personal information. The present disclosurerecognizes that the use of such personal information data, in thepresent technology, may be used to the benefit of users.

The present disclosure contemplates that the entities responsible forthe collection, analysis, disclosure, transfer, storage, or other use ofsuch personal information data will comply with well-established privacypolicies and/or privacy practices. In particular, such entities shouldimplement and consistently use privacy policies and practices that aregenerally recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or governmentalrequirements for maintaining personal information data private andsecure. Such policies should be easily accessible by users, and shouldbe updated as the collection and/or use of data changes. Personalinformation from users should be collected for legitimate and reasonableuses of the entity and not shared or sold outside of those legitimateuses. Further, such collection/sharing should only occur after receivingthe informed consent of the users. Additionally, such entities shouldconsider taking any needed steps for safeguarding and securing access tosuch personal information data and ensuring that others with access tothe personal information data adhere to their privacy policies andprocedures. Further, such entities can subject themselves to evaluationby third parties to certify their adherence to widely accepted privacypolicies and practices. In addition, policies and practices should beadapted for the particular types of personal information data beingcollected and/or accessed and adapted to applicable laws and standards,including jurisdiction-specific considerations. For instance, in the US,collection of, or access to, certain health data may be governed byfederal and/or state laws, such as the Health Insurance Portability andAccountability Act (HIPAA); whereas health data in other countries maybe subject to other regulations and policies and should be handledaccordingly. Hence different privacy practices should be maintained fordifferent personal data types in each country.

Despite the foregoing, the present disclosure also contemplatesembodiments in which users selectively block the use of, or access to,personal information data. That is, the present disclosure contemplatesthat hardware and/or software elements can be provided to prevent orblock access to such personal information data. For example, the presenttechnology may be configurable to allow users to selectively “opt in” or“opt out” of participation in the collection of personal informationdata, e.g., during registration for services or anytime thereafter. Inaddition to providing “opt in” and “opt out” options, the presentdisclosure contemplates providing notifications relating to the accessor use of personal information. For instance, a user may be notifiedupon downloading an app that their personal information data will beaccessed and then reminded again just before personal information datais accessed by the app.

Moreover, it is the intent of the present disclosure that personalinformation data should be managed and handled in a way to minimizerisks of unintentional or unauthorized access or use. Risk can beminimized by limiting the collection of data and deleting data once itis no longer needed. In addition, and when applicable, including incertain health related applications, data de-identification can be usedto protect a user's privacy. De-identification may be facilitated, whenappropriate, by removing specific identifiers (e.g., date of birth,etc.), controlling the amount or specificity of data stored (e.g.,collecting location data a city level rather than at an address level),controlling how data is stored (e.g., aggregating data across users),and/or other methods.

Therefore, although the present disclosure may broadly cover use ofpersonal information data to implement one or more various disclosedembodiments, the present disclosure also contemplates that the variousembodiments can also be implemented without the need for accessing suchpersonal information data. That is, the various embodiments of thepresent technology are not rendered inoperable due to the lack of all ora portion of such personal information data.

For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components set forth inone or more of the preceding figures (e.g., FIGS. 5-14) may beconfigured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes,and/or methods as set forth in FIG. 15 (and related description herein),and further, in the example section below. For example, the basebandcircuitry as described above in connection with one or more of thepreceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one ormore of the examples set forth below. For another example, circuitryassociated with a UE, base station, network element, etc. as describedabove in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may beconfigured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples setforth below in the example section.

EXAMPLES

Example 1 may include this disclosure provides details on the CWS updatemechanism for NR-U and also when CBG-based transmissions are configured.

Example 2 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein the parameters from Table I and Table II are reused.

Example 3 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein the LBT parameters and MCOT values for Table II are asin Table III to align NR-U toward Wi-Fi and allow the two technologiesto be in par.

Example 4 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein for the DL CWS adjustment, a reference DL burst isdefined for the CWS adjustment as one of the following options:

A. the reference burst is always 1 ms long independently from thesubcarrier spacing and starts from the beginning of the DL burst

B. the reference burst is composed of the partial SF (subframe) from thebeginning of the DL burst+following SF independently from the subcarrierspacing. In case the partial subframe is the only subframe included inthe reference DL burst, only the partial subframe is used for CWSadjustment

C. the reference burst is composed of N symbols (e.g., 14) from thestart of the DL burst, where N is RRC configured, and N may be largerthan the number of symbols in the partial slot.

D. the reference burst is composed of the partial slot only.

E. the reference burst is composed of T ms, or us, starting from thebeginning of the DL burst, where T, for example, is 1 ms.

Example 5 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, when the CBG-based transmission is configured, the NACKs arecounted such that if a NACK is received for at least one of the CBG fora specific TB, all other CBG feedbacks for that TB within the referenceslot set are also counted as NACK.

Example 6 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, when the CBG-based transmission is configured, each feedback iscounted individually for each CBG within a TB as either a NACK or an ACKindependently of the value of the other CBG feedback for that TB.

Example 7 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein the ACK/NACK is counted per TB, which requires arepresentation of ACK/NACK for each TB with CBG based HARQ ACK feedback.

Example 8 may include the method of examples 1 and 7 or some otherexample herein, wherein a TB can be counted as NACK, if 1) all the CBGscomprising the TB are NACK'ed, 2) at least one CBG is NACK'ed, or 3) X %of CBGs are NACK'ed.

Example 9 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, when CBG-based transmission is configured, the NACK is countedon a per TB basis, meaning that all the CBGs per TB are bundled into onebit. In this case if the gNB doesn't schedule all unsuccessful CBG of aTB, we see 2 choices: either the TB is be considered as a NACK eventhough all scheduled CBG are correctly received, or the TB is notcounted for CWS adjustment in this case.

Example 10 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein only the currently scheduled CBGs are considered toderive bundled HARQ-ACK for CWS adjustment.

Example 11 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein a TB can be counted as NACK, if 1) all the currentlyscheduled CBGs of the TB are NACK'ed, 2) at least one of the currentlyscheduled CBG is NACK'ed, or 3) X % of currently scheduled CBGs areNACK'ed.

Example 12 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein since some UEs may be configured with CBG-basedtransmission while others would perform TB based transmission, thepercentage of NACKs Z is evaluated through one of the following ways:

$\begin{matrix}{{3.\mspace{14mu} Z} = {( {{c*{NACKCBG}} + {t*{NACKTB}}} )\text{/}( {{c*{NCBG}} + {t*{NTB}}} )}} & (1) \\{{4.\mspace{14mu} Z} = {( {{u*{NACKCBG}} + {( {1 - u} )*{NACKTB}}} )\text{/}( {{u*{NCBG}} + {( {1 - u} )*{NTB}}} )}} & (2)\end{matrix}$

Example 13 may include, in some embodiments, the TBs/CBGs/CBs feedbacksfor one or more of the following cases are not used for the CWSadjustment:

a. TB/CBG/CB that is punctured by others, e.g., URLLC

b. In the initial partial slot, the TB/CBG/CB punctured due to latechannel occupation

c. Due to BWP switch, UE doesn't report HARQ-ACK for certain PDSCH. Inthis case, the transmission is considered a NACK as default or it isignored for the CWS adjustment.

d. If gNB doesn't schedule all unsuccessful CBG of a TB, such TB is notcounted.

Example 14 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein for self-scheduling DTX is considered as an indicationof collision and as a NACK in the matter of the CWS adjustmentmechanism.

Example 15 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein for cross-carrier scheduling, DTX is ignored for thematter of the CWS adjustment mechanism.

Example 16 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein another aspect that needs to be considered is the CWSupdate for the gNB when the acquired COT is shared with grant-free orscheduled UEs, or when PDSCH transmission is not performed by the gNB:

c. If the gNB performs PDSCH transmissions, and part of the acquiredMCOT is configured for UL transmissions with overlapping time-domainresources for scheduled or grant-free transmissions, in someembodiments, the CWS update is performed as described above.

d. If the gNB does not perform any PDSCH transmissions, and part of theacquired MCOT is configured for UL transmissions with overlappingtime-domain resources:

-   -   if eNB schedules UL transport blocks (TBs) with 25 us LBT in a        shared COT without any PDSCH, the gNB increases the CWS if less        than X % of the scheduled UL TBs are not successfully received        or if less than X % of the CBGs for the scheduled UL are not        successfully received, where X is as an example 10, or in case        Q*100 is less than X, where Q is given by one of the following        equations:

$\begin{matrix}{{{i.\mspace{14mu} Q} = {( {{c*{NACKCBG}} + {t*{NACKTB}}} )\text{/}( {{c*{NCBG}} + {t*{NTB}}} )}},} & (3) \\{{{{ii}.\mspace{14mu} Q} = {( {{u*{NACKCBG}} + {( {1 - u} )*{NACKTB}}} )\text{/}( {{u*{NCBG}} + {( {1 - u} )*{NTB}}} )}},} & (4)\end{matrix}$

-   -   if gNB schedules UL transport blocks (TBs) with 25 us LBT in a        shared COT without any PDSCH, and also shares the MCOT with        grant-free UEs, the CWS update is performed based on the        schedule and/or grant-free TBs or CBGs that have been detected        by the gNB.

Example 17 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein for the Cat. 4 LBT for UL transmission, the CWS isadjusted per UE and at UE.

Example 18 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein a reference UL burst is defined for the CWS adjustmentaccording to one of the following options:

i. the reference burst is always 1 ms long independently from thesubcarrier spacing and starts from the beginning of the UL burst.

ii. the reference burst is composed by the partial SF from the beginningof the UL burst+following SF independently from the subcarrier spacing.In case the partial subframe is the only subframe included in thereference UL burst, only the partial subframe is used for CWS adjustment

iii. the reference burst is composed by N symbols from the start of theUL burst, where N is RRC configured, and N may be larger than the numberof symbols that compose the initial partial slot.

iv. the reference burst is composed by the initial partial slot only.

v. the reference burst is composed by T ms starting from the beginningof the UL burst, where T is for example 1 ms.

Example 19 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein the gNB configures a number of symbol N, so that thereference burst occurs at least in symbol ns-N, where ns is the first orlast symbol of the CORESET containing the UL grant or a DFI DCI.

Example 20 may include the method of examples 1 and 19 or some otherexample herein, wherein N is evaluated as

$\begin{matrix}{{N = {{Nx} + y}},} & (5) \\{{{{Or}\mspace{14mu} N} = {{Nx} + {TA} + y}},} & (6)\end{matrix}$

Example 21 may include the method of examples 1 and 19 or some otherexample herein, wherein the gNB configures a number of slot N, so thatthe reference burst occurs before ns-N, where ns is here the slotcontaining the UL grant or the DFI DCI.

Example 22 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein define the HARQ_ID_ref as the HARQ process ID of thereference burst.

Example 23 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein for scheduled UEs if the NDI bit for at least one of theactive HARQ processes of HARQ_ID_ref in the reference burst is toggled,the contention window size at the UE is reset for all the priorityclasses.

Example 24 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein if the HARQ_ID_ref is not scheduled or NDI of the activeHARQ process(es) of HARQ_ID_ref is not toggled, the contention windowsize of all priority classes at the UE is increased to the next highervalue.

Example 25 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein if CBG-based transmission is configured, CBGTI=1 isconsidered as failure, i.e., NACK.

Example 26 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein the CBGs are bundled to represent the information on TBfailure/success in the CWS adjustment mechanism.

Example 27 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein if CBG-based transmission is configured, all CBGs of aTB transmitted in the reference burst is considered in CWS adjustment.

Example 28 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein if CBG-based transmission is configured, only thecurrently transmitted CBGs of a TB transmitted in the reference burst isconsidered for CWS adjustment.

Example 29 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, when the CBG-base transmission is configured, the NACK arecounted such that if a NACK is received for at least one of the CBG fora specific TB, all other CBG feedbacks for that TB within the referenceburst set are also counted as NACK.

Example 30 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, when the CBG-based transmission is configured, each feedback iscounted individually for each CBG within a TB as either a NACK or an ACKindependently of the value of the other CBG feedback for that TB.

Example 31 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein the ACK/NACK is counted per TB, which requires arepresentation of ACKNACK for each TB with CBG based HARQ ACK feedback.In some embodiments, a TB can be counted as NACK, if 1) all the CBGscomprising the TB are NACK'ed, 2) at least one CBG is NACK'ed, or 3) X %of CBGs are NACK'ed.

Example 32 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein the percentage of NACKs X is evaluated through one ofthe following equations:

X = (c * NACKCBG + t * NACKTB)/(c * NCBG + t * NTB)Or  X = (u * NACKCBG + (u − 1)NACKTB)/(u * NCBG + (u − 1) * NTB)

The method of claim 1, the CWS is reset to the minimum value if themaximum CWS is used for K consecutive LBT attempts for transmission onlyfor the priority class for which maximum CWS is used for K consecutiveLBT attempts, and the value of K is left up to UE's implementation.

Example 33 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein for grant-free uplink transmission in NR-U, if an ULgrant or a DFI-DCI is received, the CWS is reset for all the priorityclasses if a UL grant is received and the NDI bit for at least one ofthe active HARQ processes associated with HARQ_ID_ref is toggled or anDFI-DCI is received and indicates

-   -   ACK for all the CBGs for at least one of the active HARQ        processes associated with HARQ_ID_ref    -   ACK for one of the CBGs for at least one of the active HARQ        processes associated with HARQ_ID_ref    -   ACK for Y % of the CBGs for at least one of the active HARQ        processes associated with HARQ_ID_ref

The CWS of all priority classes at the UE is increased to the nexthigher value if a UL grant is received and the NDI bit(s) of all theactive HARQ processe(s) for the reference burst are not toggled, or a ULgrant is received and does not schedule any active HARQ process for thereference burst or a DFI-DCI is received which

-   -   does not indicate ACK for all the CBGs for at least one of the        active HARQ processes for the reference burst.    -   does not indicate ACK for X % of all the CBGs for at least one        of the active HARQ processes for the reference burst.    -   does not indicate ACK for X % of the CBGs for at least one of        the active HARQ processes associated with HARQ_ID_ref. the CWS        is reset to the minimum value if the maximum CWS is used for K        consecutive LBT attempts for transmission only for the priority        class for which maximum CWS is used for K consecutive LBT        attempts, and the value of K is left up to UE's implementation.

If there exist at least one previous Cat.4 LBT UL transmission, from thestart slot of which, N or more slots have elapsed and neither UL grantnor DFI-DCI is received, where as an example N=max (X, corresponding ULburst length+1) if X>0 and N=0 otherwise, where X is RRC configured. Foreach previous Cat-4 LBT (SUL/AUL) transmission from the start slot ofwhich, N or more slots have elapsed and neither UL grant nor DFI-DCI isreceived CWS for all priority classes at the UE is increased to the nexthigher value, and each such previous Cat-4 LBT transmission is used toadjust the CWS only once.

If the UE starts a new Cat-4 LBT UL transmission before N slots haveelapsed from the previous Cat-4 LBT and neither UL grant nor DFI-DCI isreceived, the CWS is unchanged.

If the UE receives feedback for one or more previous Cat-4 LBT (SUL/AUL)transmission from the start slot of which, N or more slots have elapsedand neither UL grant nor DFI-DCI was received, it may re-compute the CWSas follows: i) it reverts the CWS to the value used to transmit thefirst burst of such previous Cat-4 LBT transmission(s); ii) it updatesthe CWS sequentially in order of the transmission of bursts as follows.If the feedback indicates

-   -   ACK for all the CBGs for the first slot of the burst,    -   Or ACK for X % of all CBGs for the first slot of the burst

CWS is reset else the CWS is doubled. If the UE CWS changes while aCat-4 LBT procedure is ongoing, the UE draws a new random back-offcounter and applies it to the ongoing LBT procedure.

Example 34 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein only the PUSCH for one or more of the following casesare used for the CWS adjustment:

a. Only PUSCH whose starting symbol is within the reference burst;

b. Only PUSCH within the reference burst;

c. Only the earliest PUSCH within the reference burst

Example 35 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein the TB/CBGs for one or more of the following are notused for the CWS adjustment:

-   -   TB/CBG that is punctured by others, e.g., URLLC    -   In the initial partial slot, the TB/CBG punctured due to late        channel occupation

Example 36 may include the method of example 1 or some other exampleherein, wherein for multi-slot PUSCH, one of the following options canbe enforced to prevent that a partial PUSCH repetition might be used asa reference burst:

-   -   It is gNB's implementation to guarantee that after getting a        reference timing ns-N, there will always be a PUSCH with a full        repetitions, which can be used as reference burst.    -   If the reference timing ns-N is in the middle of the repetitions        of a TB, UE can skip this TB, and use some even earlier PUSCH        transmission as reference burst.    -   A threshold can be configured to decide whether a TB can be used        within the reference burst. The threshold can be a number of        repetitions. Let the reference timing ns-N is in the middle of        the repetitions of a TB, if the number of repetitions received        by gNB is higher than threshold, the HARQ-ACK for the TB can        still be a good reference for CWS; otherwise, UE can skip this        TB, and use some even earlier PUSCH transmission as reference        burst.    -   A threshold can be used to determine the number of repetitions        used by gNB. The threshold can be a maximum coding rate. Let the        reference timing ns-N is in the middle of the repetitions of a        TB, if coding rate of repetitions received by gNB is lower than        the threshold, the current TB can be used within the reference        burst. Otherwise, UE can skip this TB, and use some even earlier        PUSCH transmission as reference burst.    -   Regardless on the reference timing ns-N, in this case if at        least one of the repetitions follow with the reference burst,        all the repetitions will be used for the CWS adjustment.    -   Assuming there are multiple PUSCH transmitted in the reference        burst, if there is a multi-slot PUSCH in the reference burst,        however only part of its repetitions is received by gNB, only        other PUSCHs is considered in CWS adjustment.

Example 37 may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one ormore elements of a method described in or related to any of examples1-36, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 38 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readablemedia comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, uponexecution of the instructions by one or more processors of theelectronic device, to perform one or more elements of a method describedin or related to any of examples 1-36, or any other method or processdescribed herein.

Example 39 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, orcircuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in orrelated to any of examples 1-36, or any other method or processdescribed herein.

Example 40 may include a method, technique, or process as described inor related to any of examples 1-36, or portions or parts thereof.

Example 41 may include an apparatus comprising: one or more processorsand one or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that,when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or moreprocessors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described inor related to any of examples 1-36, or portions thereof.

Example 42 may include a signal as described in or related to any ofexamples 1-36, or portions or parts thereof.

Example 43 may include a signal in a wireless network as shown anddescribed herein.

Example 44 may include a method of communicating in a wireless networkas shown and described herein.

Example 45 may include a system for providing wireless communication asshown and described herein.

Example 46 may include a device for providing wireless communication asshown and described herein.

Any of the above-described examples may be combined with any otherexample (or combination of examples), unless explicitly statedotherwise. The foregoing description of one or more implementationsprovides illustration and description, but is not intended to beexhaustive or to limit the scope of embodiments to the precise formdisclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of theabove teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments.

Abbreviations

For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviationsmay apply to the examples and embodiments discussed herein.

3GPP Third Generation Partnership Project

4G Fourth Generation

5G Fifth Generation

5GC 5G Core network

ACK Acknowledgement

AF Application Function

AM Acknowledged Mode

AMBR Aggregate Maximum Bit Rate

AMF Access and Mobility Management Function

AN Access Network

ANR Automatic Neighbour Relation

AP Application Protocol, Antenna Port, Access Point

API Application Programming Interface

APN Access Point Name

ARP Allocation and Retention Priority

ARQ Automatic Repeat Request

AS Access Stratum

ASN.1 Abstract Syntax Notation One

AUSF Authentication Server Function

AWGN Additive White Gaussian Noise

BCH Broadcast Channel

BER Bit Error Ratio

BFD Beam Failure Detection

BLER Block Error Rate

BPSK Binary Phase Shift Keying

BRAS Broadband Remote Access Server

BSS Business Support System

BS Base Station

BSR Buffer Status Report

BW Bandwidth

BWP Bandwidth Part

C-RNTI Cell Radio Network Temporary Identity

CA Carrier Aggregation, Certification Authority

CAPEX CAPital EXpenditure

CBRA Contention Based Random Access

CC Component Carrier, Country Code, Cryptographic Checksum

CCA Clear Channel Assessment

CCE Control Channel Element

CCCH Common Control Channel

CE Coverage Enhancement

CDM Content Delivery Network

CDMA Code-Division Multiple Access

CFRA Contention Free Random Access

CG Cell Group

CI Cell Identity

CID Cell-ID (e.g., positioning method)

CIM Common Information Model

CIR Carrier to Interference Ratio

CK Cipher Key

CM Connection Management, Conditional Mandatory

CMAS Commercial Mobile Alert Service

CMD Command

CMS Cloud Management System

CO Conditional Optional

CoMP Coordinated Multi-Point

CORESET Control Resource Set

COTS Commercial Off-The-Shelf

CP Control Plane, Cyclic Prefix, Connection Point

CPD Connection Point Descriptor

CPE Customer Premise Equipment

CPICH Common Pilot Channel

CQI Channel Quality Indicator

CPU CSI processing unit, Central Processing Unit

C/R Command/Response field bit

CRAN Cloud Radio Access Network, Cloud RAN

CRB Common Resource Block

CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check

CRI Channel-State Information Resource Indicator, CSI-RS Resource

Indicator

C-RNTI Cell RNTI

CS Circuit Switched

CSAR Cloud Service Archive

CSI Channel-State Information

CSI-IM CSI Interference Measurement

CSI-RS CSI Reference Signal

CSI-RSRP CSI reference signal received power

CSI-RSRQ CSI reference signal received quality

CSI-SINR CSI signal-to-noise and interference ratio

CSMA Carrier Sense Multiple Access

CSMA/CA CSMA with collision avoidance

CSS Common Search Space, Cell-specific Search Space

CTS Clear-to-Send

CW Codeword

CWS Contention Window Size

D2D Device-to-Device

DC Dual Connectivity, Direct Current

DCI Downlink Control Information

DF Deployment Flavour

DL Downlink

DMTF Distributed Management Task Force

DPDK Data Plane Development Kit

DM-RS, DMRS Demodulation Reference Signal

DN Data network

DRB Data Radio Bearer

DRS Discovery Reference Signal

DRX Discontinuous Reception

DSL Domain Specific Language. Digital Subscriber Line

DSLAM DSL Access Multiplexer

DwPTS Downlink Pilot Time Slot

E-LAN Ethernet Local Area Network

E2E End-to-End

ECCA extended clear channel assessment, extended CCA

ECCE Enhanced Control Channel Element, Enhanced CCE

ED Energy Detection

EDGE Enhanced Datarates for GSM Evolution (GSM Evolution)

EGMF Exposure Governance Management Function

EGPRS Enhanced GPRS

EIR Equipment Identity Register

eLAA enhanced Licensed Assisted Access, enhanced LAA

EM Element Manager

eMBB Enhanced Mobile Broadband

EMS Element Management System

eNB evolved NodeB, E-UTRAN Node B

EN-DC E-UTRA-NR Dual Connectivity

EPC Evolved Packet Core

EPDCCH enhanced PDCCH, enhanced Physical Downlink Control Cannel

EPRE Energy per resource element

EPS Evolved Packet System

EREG enhanced REG, enhanced resource element groups

ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute

ETWS Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System

eUICC embedded UICC, embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card

E-UTRA Evolved UTRA

E-UTRAN Evolved UTRAN

EV2X Enhanced V2X

F1AP F1 Application Protocol

F1-C F1 Control plane interface

F1-U F1 User plane interface

FACCH Fast Associated Control CHannel

FACCH/F Fast Associated Control Channel/Full rate

FACCH/H Fast Associated Control Channel/Half rate

FACH Forward Access Channel

FAUSCH Fast Uplink Signalling Channel

FB Functional Block

FBI Feedback Information

FCC Federal Communications Commission

FCCH Frequency Correction CHannel

FDD Frequency Division Duplex

FDM Frequency Division Multiplex

FDMA Frequency Division Multiple Access

FE Front End

FEC Forward Error Correction

FFS For Further Study

FFT Fast Fourier Transformation

feLAA further enhanced Licensed Assisted Access, further enhanced LAA

FN Frame Number

FPGA Field-Programmable Gate Array

FR Frequency Range

G-RNTI GERAN Radio Network Temporary Identity

GERAN GSM EDGE RAN, GSM EDGE Radio Access Network

GGSN Gateway GPRS Support Node

GLONASS GLObal'naya NAvigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema (Engl.: GlobalNavigation Satellite System)

gNB Next Generation NodeB

gNB-CU gNB-centralized unit, Next Generation NodeB centralized unit

gNB-DU gNB-distributed unit, Next Generation NodeB distributed unit

GNSS Global Navigation Satellite System

GPRS General Packet Radio Service

GSM Global System for Mobile Communications, Groupe Special Mobile

GTP GPRS Tunneling Protocol

GTP-U GPRS Tunnelling Protocol for User Plane

GTS Go To Sleep Signal (related to WUS)

GUMMEI Globally Unique MME Identifier

GUTI Globally Unique Temporary UE Identity

HARQ Hybrid ARQ, Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request

HANDO, HO Handover

HFN HyperFrame Number

HHO Hard Handover

HLR Home Location Register

HN Home Network

HO Handover

HPLMN Home Public Land Mobile Network

HSDPA High Speed Downlink Packet Access

HSN Hopping Sequence Number

HSPA High Speed Packet Access

HSS Home Subscriber Server

HSUPA High Speed Uplink Packet Access

HTTP Hyper Text Transfer Protocol

HTTPS Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (https is http/1.1 over SSL,i.e., port 443)

I-Block Information Block

ICCID Integrated Circuit Card Identification

ICIC Inter-Cell Interference Coordination

ID Identity, identifier

IDFT Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform

IE Information element

IBE In-Band Emission

IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

IEI Information Element Identifier

IEIDL Information Element Identifier Data Length

IETF Internet Engineering Task Force

IF Infrastructure

IM Interference Measurement, Intermodulation, IP Multimedia

IMC IMS Credentials

IMEI International Mobile Equipment Identity

IMGI International mobile group identity

IMPI IP Multimedia Private Identity

IMPU IP Multimedia PUblic identity

IMS IP Multimedia Subsystem

IMSI International Mobile Subscriber Identity

IoT Internet of Things

IP Internet Protocol

Ipsec IP Security, Internet Protocol Security

IP-CAN IP-Connectivity Access Network

IP-M IP Multicast

IPv4 Internet Protocol Version 4

IPv6 Internet Protocol Version 6

IR Infrared

IS In Sync

IRP Integration Reference Point

ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network

ISIM IM Services Identity Module

ISO International Organisation for Standardisation

ISP Internet Service Provider

IWF Interworking-Function

I-WLAN Interworking WLAN

K Constraint length of the convolutional code, USIM Individual key

kB Kilobyte (1000 bytes)

kbps kilo-bits per second

Kc Ciphering key

Ki Individual subscriber authentication key

KPI Key Performance Indicator

KQI Key Quality Indicator

KSI Key Set Identifier

ksps kilo-symbols per second

KVM Kernel Virtual Machine

L1 Layer 1 (physical layer)

L1-RSRP Layer 1 reference signal received power

L2 Layer 2 (data link layer)

L3 Layer 3 (network layer)

LAA Licensed Assisted Access

LAN Local Area Network

LBT Listen Before Talk

LCM LifeCycle Management

LCR Low Chip Rate

LCS Location Services

LCID Logical Channel ID

LI Layer Indicator

LLC Logical Link Control, Low Layer Compatibility

LPLMN Local PLMN

LPP LTE Positioning Protocol

LSB Least Significant Bit

LTE Long Term Evolution

LWA LTE-WLAN aggregation

LWIP LTE/WLAN Radio Level Integration with IPsec Tunnel

LTE Long Term Evolution

M2M Machine-to-Machine

MAC Medium Access Control (protocol layering context)

MAC Message authentication code (security/encryption context)

MAC-A MAC used for authentication and key agreement (TSG T WG3 context)

MAC-I MAC used for data integrity of signalling messages (TSG T WG3context)

MANO Management and Orchestration

MBMS Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Service

MB SFN Multimedia Broadcast multicast service Single Frequency Network

MCC Mobile Country Code

MCG Master Cell Group

MCOT Maximum Channel Occupancy Time

MCS Modulation and coding scheme

MDAF Management Data Analytics Function

MDAS Management Data Analytics Service

MDT Minimization of Drive Tests

ME Mobile Equipment

MeNB master eNB

MER Message Error Ratio

MGL Measurement Gap Length

MGRP Measurement Gap Repetition Period

MIB Master Information Block, Management Information Base

MIMO Multiple Input Multiple Output

MLC Mobile Location Centre

MM Mobility Management

MME Mobility Management Entity

MN Master Node

MO Measurement Object, Mobile Originated

MPBCH MTC Physical Broadcast CHannel

MPDCCH MTC Physical Downlink Control CHannel

MPDSCH MTC Physical Downlink Shared CHannel

MPRACH MTC Physical Random Access CHannel

MPUSCH MTC Physical Uplink Shared Channel

MPLS MultiProtocol Label Switching

MS Mobile Station

MSB Most Significant Bit

MSC Mobile Switching Centre

MSI Minimum System Information, MCH Scheduling Information

MSID Mobile Station Identifier

MSIN Mobile Station Identification Number

MSISDN Mobile Subscriber ISDN Number

MT Mobile Terminated, Mobile Termination

MTC Machine-Type Communications

mMTC massive MTC, massive Machine-Type Communications

MU-MIMO Multi User MIMO

MWUS MTC wake-up signal, MTC WUS

NACK Negative Acknowledgement

NAI Network Access Identifier

NAS Non-Access Stratum, Non-Access Stratum layer

NCT Network Connectivity Topology

NEC Network Capability Exposure

NE-DC NR-E-UTRA Dual Connectivity

NEF Network Exposure Function

NF Network Function

NFP Network Forwarding Path

NFPD Network Forwarding Path Descriptor

NFV Network Functions Virtualization

NFVI NFV Infrastructure

NFVO NFV Orchestrator

NG Next Generation, Next Gen

NGEN-DC NG-RAN E-UTRA-NR Dual Connectivity

NM Network Manager

NMS Network Management System

N-PoP Network Point of Presence

NMIB, N-MIB Narrowband MIB

NPBCH Narrowband Physical Broadcast CHannel

NPDCCH Narrowband Physical Downlink Control CHannel

NPDSCH Narrowband Physical Downlink Shared CHannel

NPRACH Narrowband Physical Random Access CHannel

NPUSCH Narrowband Physical Uplink Shared CHannel

NPSS Narrowband Primary Synchronization Signal

NSSS Narrowband Secondary Synchronization Signal

NR New Radio, Neighbour Relation

NRF NF Repository Function

NRS Narrowband Reference Signal

NS Network Service

NSA Non-Standalone operation mode

NSD Network Service Descriptor

NSR Network Service Record

NSSAI Network Slice Selection Assistance Information

S-NNSAI Single-NS SAI

NSSF Network Slice Selection Function

NW Network

NWUS Narrowband wake-up signal, Narrowband WUS

NZP Non-Zero Power

O&M Operation and Maintenance

ODU2 Optical channel Data Unit—type 2

OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing

OFDMA Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access

OOB Out-of-band

OOS Out of Sync

OPEX OPerating EXpense

OSI Other System Information

OSS Operations Support System

OTA over-the-air

PAPR Peak-to-Average Power Ratio

PAR Peak to Average Ratio

PBCH Physical Broadcast Channel

PC Power Control, Personal Computer

PCC Primary Component Carrier, Primary CC

PCell Primary Cell

PCI Physical Cell ID, Physical Cell Identity

PCEF Policy and Charging Enforcement Function

PCF Policy Control Function

PCRF Policy Control and Charging Rules Function

PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol, Packet Data Convergence Protocollayer

PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel

PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol

PDN Packet Data Network, Public Data Network

PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel

PDU Protocol Data Unit

PEI Permanent Equipment Identifiers

PFD Packet Flow Description

P-GW PDN Gateway

PHICH Physical hybrid-ARQ indicator channel

PHY Physical layer

PLMN Public Land Mobile Network

PIN Personal Identification Number

PM Performance Measurement

PMI Precoding Matrix Indicator

PNF Physical Network Function

PNFD Physical Network Function Descriptor

PNFR Physical Network Function Record

POC PTT over Cellular

PP, PTP Point-to-Point

PPP Point-to-Point Protocol

PRACH Physical RACH

PRB Physical resource block

PRG Physical resource block group

ProSe Proximity Services, Proximity-Based Service

PRS Positioning Reference Signal

PRR Packet Reception Radio

PS Packet Services

PSBCH Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel

PSDCH Physical Sidelink Downlink Channel

PSCCH Physical Sidelink Control Channel

PSSCH Physical Sidelink Shared Channel

PSCell Primary SCell

PSS Primary Synchronization Signal

PSTN Public Switched Telephone Network

PT-RS Phase-tracking reference signal

PTT Push-to-Talk

PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel

PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel

QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation

QCI QoS class of identifier

QCL Quasi co-location

QFI QoS Flow ID, QoS Flow Identifier

QoS Quality of Service

QPSK Quadrature (Quaternary) Phase Shift Keying

QZSS Quasi-Zenith Satellite System

RA-RNTI Random Access RNTI

RAB Radio Access Bearer, Random Access Burst

RACH Random Access Channel

RADIUS Remote Authentication Dial In User Service

RAN Radio Access Network

RAND RANDom number (used for authentication)

RAR Random Access Response

RAT Radio Access Technology

RAU Routing Area Update

RB Resource block, Radio Bearer

RBG Resource block group

REG Resource Element Group

Rel Release

REQ REQuest

RF Radio Frequency

RI Rank Indicator

RIV Resource indicator value

RL Radio Link

RLC Radio Link Control, Radio Link Control layer

RLC AM RLC Acknowledged Mode

RLC UM RLC Unacknowledged Mode

RLF Radio Link Failure

RLM Radio Link Monitoring

RLM-RS Reference Signal for RLM

RM Registration Management

RMC Reference Measurement Channel

RMSI Remaining MSI, Remaining Minimum System Information

RN Relay Node

RNC Radio Network Controller

RNL Radio Network Layer

RNTI Radio Network Temporary Identifier

ROHC RObust Header Compression

RRC Radio Resource Control, Radio Resource Control layer

RRM Radio Resource Management

RS Reference Signal

RSRP Reference Signal Received Power

RSRQ Reference Signal Received Quality

RSSI Received Signal Strength Indicator

RSU Road Side Unit

RSTD Reference Signal Time difference

RTP Real Time Protocol

RTS Ready-To-Send

RTT Round Trip Time

Rx Reception, Receiving, Receiver

S1AP S1 Application Protocol

S1-MME S1 for the control plane

S 1-U S1 for the user plane

S-GW Serving Gateway

S-RNTI SRNC Radio Network Temporary Identity

S-TMSI SAE Temporary Mobile Station Identifier

SA Standalone operation mode

SAE System Architecture Evolution

SAP Service Access Point

SAPD Service Access Point Descriptor

SAPI Service Access Point Identifier

SCC Secondary Component Carrier, Secondary CC

SCell Secondary Cell

SC-FDMA Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access

SCG Secondary Cell Group

SCM Security Context Management

SCS Subcarrier Spacing

SCTP Stream Control Transmission Protocol

SDAP Service Data Adaptation Protocol, Service Data Adaptation Protocollayer

SDL Supplementary Downlink

SDNF Structured Data Storage Network Function

SDP Service Discovery Protocol (Bluetooth related)

SDSF Structured Data Storage Function

SDU Service Data Unit

SEAF Security Anchor Function

SeNB secondary eNB

SEPP Security Edge Protection Proxy

SFI Slot format indication

SFTD Space-Frequency Time Diversity, SFN and frame timing difference

SFN System Frame Number

SgNB Secondary gNB

SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node

S-GW Serving Gateway

SI System Information

SI-RNTI System Information RNTI

SIB System Information Block

SIM Subscriber Identity Module

SIP Session Initiated Protocol

SiP System in Package

SL Sidelink

SLA Service Level Agreement

SM Session Management

SMF Session Management Function

SMS Short Message Service

SMSF SMS Function

SMTC SSB-based Measurement Timing Configuration

SN Secondary Node, Sequence Number

SoC System on Chip

SON Self-Organizing Network

SpCell Special Cell

SP-CSI-RNTI Semi-Persistent CSI RNTI

SPS Semi-Persistent Scheduling

SQN Sequence number

SR Scheduling Request

SRB Signalling Radio Bearer

SRS Sounding Reference Signal

SS Synchronization Signal

SSB Synchronization Signal Block, SS/PBCH Block

SSBRI SS/PBCH Block Resource Indicator, Synchronization Signal

Block Resource Indicator

SSC Session and Service Continuity

SS-RSRP Synchronization Signal based Reference Signal Received Power

SS-RSRQ Synchronization Signal based Reference Signal Received Quality

SS-SINR Synchronization Signal based Signal to Noise and InterferenceRatio

SSS Secondary Synchronization Signal

SSSG Search Space Set Group

SSSIF Search Space Set Indicator

SST Slice/Service Types

SU-MIMO Single User MIMO

SUL Supplementary Uplink

TA Timing Advance, Tracking Area

TAC Tracking Area Code

TAG Timing Advance Group

TAU Tracking Area Update

TB Transport Block

TBS Transport Block Size

TBD To Be Defined

TCI Transmission Configuration Indicator

TCP Transmission Communication Protocol

TDD Time Division Duplex

TDM Time Division Multiplexing

TDMA Time Division Multiple Access

TE Terminal Equipment

TEID Tunnel End Point Identifier

TFT Traffic Flow Template

TMSI Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity

TNL Transport Network Layer

TPC Transmit Power Control

TPMI Transmitted Precoding Matrix Indicator

TR Technical Report

TRP, TRxP Transmission Reception Point

TRS Tracking Reference Signal

TRx Transceiver

TS Technical Specifications, Technical Standard

TTI Transmission Time Interval

Tx Transmission, Transmitting, Transmitter

U-RNTI UTRAN Radio Network Temporary Identity

UART Universal Asynchronous Receiver and Transmitter

UCI Uplink Control Information

UE User Equipment

UDM Unified Data Management

UDP User Datagram Protocol

UDSF Unstructured Data Storage Network Function

UICC Universal Integrated Circuit Card

UL Uplink

UM Unacknowledged Mode

UML Unified Modelling Language

UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System

UP User Plane

UPF User Plane Function

URI Uniform Resource Identifier

URL Uniform Resource Locator

URLLC Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency

USB Universal Serial Bus

USIM Universal Subscriber Identity Module

USS UE-specific search space

UTRA UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access

UTRAN Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network

UwPTS Uplink Pilot Time Slot

V2I Vehicle-to-Infrastruction

V2P Vehicle-to-Pedestrian

V2V Vehicle-to-Vehicle

V2X Vehicle-to-everything

VIM Virtualized Infrastructure Manager

VL Virtual Link,

VLAN Virtual LAN, Virtual Local Area Network

VM Virtual Machine

VNF Virtualized Network Function

VNFFG VNF Forwarding Graph

VNFFGD VNF Forwarding Graph Descriptor

VNFM VNF Manager

VoIP Voice-over-IP, Voice-over-Internet Protocol

VPLMN Visited Public Land Mobile Network

VPN Virtual Private Network

VRB Virtual Resource Block

WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access

WLAN Wireless Local Area Network

WMAN Wireless Metropolitan Area Network

WPAN Wireless Personal Area Network

X2-C X2-Control plane

X2-U X2-User plane

XML eXtensible Markup Language

XRES EXpected user RESponse

XOR eXclusive OR

ZC Zadoff-Chu

ZP Zero Power

Terminology

For the purposes of the present document, the following terms anddefinitions are applicable to the examples and embodiments discussedherein.

The term “circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includeshardware components such as an electronic circuit, a logic circuit, aprocessor (shared, dedicated, or group) and/or memory (shared,dedicated, or group), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC),a field-programmable device (FPD) (e.g., a field-programmable gate array(FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a complex PLD (CPLD), ahigh-capacity PLD (HCPLD), a structured ASIC, or a programmable SoC),digital signal processors (DSPs), etc., that are configured to providethe described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry mayexecute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at leastsome of the described functionality. The term “circuitry” may also referto a combination of one or more hardware elements (or a combination ofcircuits used in an electrical or electronic system) with the programcode used to carry out the functionality of that program code. In theseembodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code maybe referred to as a particular type of circuitry.

The term “processor circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, orincludes circuitry capable of sequentially and automatically carryingout a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations, or recording,storing, and/or transferring digital data. The term “processorcircuitry” may refer to one or more application processors, one or morebaseband processors, a physical central processing unit (CPU), asingle-core processor, a dual-core processor, a triple-core processor, aquad-core processor, and/or any other device capable of executing orotherwise operating computer-executable instructions, such as programcode, software modules, and/or functional processes. The terms“application circuitry” and/or “baseband circuitry” may be consideredsynonymous to, and may be referred to as, “processor circuitry.”

The term “interface circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, orincludes circuitry that enables the exchange of information between twoor more components or devices. The term “interface circuitry” may referto one or more hardware interfaces, for example, buses, I/O interfaces,peripheral component interfaces, network interface cards, and/or thelike.

The term “user equipment” or “UE” as used herein refers to a device withradio communication capabilities and may describe a remote user ofnetwork resources in a communications network. The term “user equipment”or “UE” may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as,client, mobile, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobileunit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station,access agent, user agent, receiver, radio equipment, reconfigurableradio equipment, reconfigurable mobile device, etc. Furthermore, theterm “user equipment” or “UE” may include any type of wireless/wireddevice or any computing device including a wireless communicationsinterface.

The term “network element” as used herein refers to physical orvirtualized equipment and/or infrastructure used to provide wired orwireless communication network services. The term “network element” maybe considered synonymous to and/or referred to as a networked computer,networking hardware, network equipment, network node, router, switch,hub, bridge, radio network controller, RAN device, RAN node, gateway,server, virtualized VNF, NFVI, and/or the like.

The term “computer system” as used herein refers to any typeinterconnected electronic devices, computer devices, or componentsthereof. Additionally, the term “computer system” and/or “system” mayrefer to various components of a computer that are communicativelycoupled with one another. Furthermore, the term “computer system” and/or“system” may refer to multiple computer devices and/or multiplecomputing systems that are communicatively coupled with one another andconfigured to share computing and/or networking resources.

The term “appliance,” “computer appliance,” or the like, as used hereinrefers to a computer device or computer system with program code (e.g.,software or firmware) that is specifically designed to provide aspecific computing resource. A “virtual appliance” is a virtual machineimage to be implemented by a hypervisor-equipped device that virtualizesor emulates a computer appliance or otherwise is dedicated to provide aspecific computing resource.

The term “resource” as used herein refers to a physical or virtualdevice, a physical or virtual component within a computing environment,and/or a physical or virtual component within a particular device, suchas computer devices, mechanical devices, memory space, processor/CPUtime, processor/CPU usage, processor and accelerator loads, hardwaretime or usage, electrical power, input/output operations, ports ornetwork sockets, channel/link allocation, throughput, memory usage,storage, network, database and applications, workload units, and/or thelike. A “hardware resource” may refer to compute, storage, and/ornetwork resources provided by physical hardware element(s). A“virtualized resource” may refer to compute, storage, and/or networkresources provided by virtualization infrastructure to an application,device, system, etc. The term “network resource” or “communicationresource” may refer to resources that are accessible by computerdevices/systems via a communications network. The term “systemresources” may refer to any kind of shared entities to provide services,and may include computing and/or network resources. System resources maybe considered as a set of coherent functions, network data objects orservices, accessible through a server where such system resources resideon a single host or multiple hosts and are clearly identifiable.

The term “channel” as used herein refers to any transmission medium,either tangible or intangible, which is used to communicate data or adata stream. The term “channel” may be synonymous with and/or equivalentto “communications channel,” “data communications channel,”“transmission channel,” “data transmission channel,” “access channel,”“data access channel,” “link,” “data link,” “carrier,” “radiofrequencycarrier,” and/or any other like term denoting a pathway or mediumthrough which data is communicated. Additionally, the term “link” asused herein refers to a connection between two devices through a RAT forthe purpose of transmitting and receiving information.

The terms “instantiate,” “instantiation,” and the like as used hereinrefers to the creation of an instance. An “instance” also refers to aconcrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, duringexecution of program code.

The terms “coupled,” “communicatively coupled,” along with derivativesthereof are used herein. The term “coupled” may mean two or moreelements are in direct physical or electrical contact with one another,may mean that two or more elements indirectly contact each other butstill cooperate or interact with each other, and/or may mean that one ormore other elements are coupled or connected between the elements thatare said to be coupled with each other. The term “directly coupled” maymean that two or more elements are in direct contact with one another.The term “communicatively coupled” may mean that two or more elementsmay be in contact with one another by a means of communication includingthrough a wire or other interconnect connection, through a wirelesscommunication channel or ink, and/or the like.

The term “information element” refers to a structural element containingone or more fields. The term “field” refers to individual contents of aninformation element, or a data element that contains content.

The term “SMTC” refers to an SSB-based measurement timing configurationconfigured by SSB-MeasurementTimingConfiguration.

The term “SSB” refers to an SS/PBCH block.

The term “a “Primary Cell” refers to the MCG cell, operating on theprimary frequency, in which the UE either performs the initialconnection establishment procedure or initiates the connectionre-establishment procedure.

The term “Primary SCG Cell” refers to the SCG cell in which the UEperforms random access when performing the Reconfiguration with Syncprocedure for DC operation.

The term “Secondary Cell” refers to a cell providing additional radioresources on top of a Special Cell for a UE configured with CA.

The term “Secondary Cell Group” refers to the subset of serving cellscomprising the PSCell and zero or more secondary cells for a UEconfigured with DC.

The term “Serving Cell” refers to the primary cell for a UE inRRC_CONNECTED not configured with CA/DC there is only one serving cellcomprising of the primary cell.

The term “serving cell” or “serving cells” refers to the set of cellscomprising the Special Cell(s) and all secondary cells for a UE inRRC_CONNECTED configured with CA/.

The term “Special Cell” refers to the PCell of the MCG or the PSCell ofthe SCG for DC operation; otherwise, the term “Special Cell” refers tothe Pcell.

1. A method, comprising: determining a contention window size (CWS) ofan uplink/downlink (UL/DL) communication channel in a new radiounlicensed (NR-U) spectrum; adjusting the CWS based on: defining areference UL/DL burst set at a predetermined time length independentfrom a subcarrier spacing and partially spanning an UL/DL burst, andcounting one or more code block groups (CBGs) in the reference UL/DLburst; and scheduling a retransmission of an UL/DL communication in theNR-U spectrum based on the adjusted CWS.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein adjusting the CWS comprises: counting one or more negativeacknowledgments (NACKs) from a signal received from a user equipment(UE), wherein in response to a NACK of the one or more NACKs beingreceived for at least one of the one or more CBGs specific to atransmission block (TB), counting a CBG hybrid automatic repeat request(HARD) feedback for the TB within the reference UL/DL burst as a NACK;and adjusting the CWS based on the counted NACKs.
 3. The method of claim1, wherein adjusting the CWS comprises: counting a hybrid automaticrepeat request (HARQ) feedback individually for each one of the one ormore CBGs specific to a transmission block (TB) as either anacknowledgement (ACK) or a negative acknowledgement (NACK); andadjusting the CWS based on the counted NACKs.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein adjusting the CWS comprises: counting a hybrid automatic repeatrequest (HARQ) feedback individually for each one of the one or moreCBGs specific to a transmission block (TB) as either an acknowledgement(ACK) or a negative acknowledgement (NACK); and assigning the TB to anACK/NACK ratio score.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein adjusting theCWS comprises: adjusting the CWS for an entire TB in response to theACK/NACK ratio score being above a predetermined threshold.
 6. Themethod of claim 4, wherein adjusting the CWS comprises omitting the TBfrom the adjusted CWS in response to the ACK/NACK ratio score beingbelow a predetermined threshold.
 7. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: performing a license assisted access (LAA) category 4 listenbefore talk (LBT) procedure before initiating a retransmission.
 8. Themethod of claim 1, wherein adjusting the CWS comprises adjusting the CWSindependently of a discontinuous transmission feedback (DTX) forcross-carrier scheduling.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein theadjusting the CWS comprises counting a discontinuous transmissionfeedback (DTX) as a negative acknowledgement (NACK) for self-scheduling.10. The method of claim 1, wherein the adjusting the CWS comprises:determining whether a user equipment (UE) scheduled to receive acommunication from a base station utilizes a CBG-based transmissionmethod or a transmission block (TB) based transmission method; andadjusting the CWS based on the determined transmission method for theUE.
 11. A base station, comprising: network circuitry; and processorcircuitry coupled to the network circuitry and configured to: determinea contention window size (CWS) of an uplink/downlink (UL/DL)communication channel in a new radio unlicensed (NR-U) spectrum; adjustthe CWS based on: defining a reference UL/DL burst set at apredetermined time length independent from a subcarrier spacing andpartially spanning an UL/DL burst, and counting one or more code blockgroups (CBGs) in the reference UL/DL burst, wherein the countingcomprises one or more negative acknowledgements (NACKs) from a signalreceived from a user equipment (UE), and schedule a retransmission of anUL/DL communication in the NR-U spectrum based on the adjusted CWS. 12.The base station of claim 11, wherein the processor circuitry is furtherconfigured to: count a CBG hybrid automatic repeat request (HARD)feedback for the TB within the reference UL/DL burst as a NACK inresponse to a NACK of the one or more NACKs being received for at leastone of the one or more CBGs specific to a transmission block (TB); andadjust the CWS based on the counted NACKs.
 13. The base station of claim11, wherein the processor circuitry is further configured to: count ahybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback individually for eachone of the one or more CBGs specific to a transmission block (TB) aseither an acknowledgement (ACK) or a NACK; and adjust the CWS based onthe counted NACKs.
 14. The base station of claim 11, wherein theprocessor circuitry is further configured to: count a hybrid automaticrepeat request (HARQ) feedback individually for each one of the one ormore CBGs specific to a transmission block (TB) as either anacknowledgement (ACK) or a NACK; and assign the TB to an ACK/NACK ratioscore.
 15. The base station of claim 14, wherein the processor circuitryis further configured to: adjust the CWS for an entire TB in response tothe ACK/NACK ratio score being above a predetermined threshold.
 16. Anon-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions to causean apparatus, upon execution of the instructions by one or moreprocessors of the apparatus, to perform one or more operations, theoperations comprising: determining a contention window size (CWS) of acommunication channel; adjusting the CWS based on: defining a referenceUL/DL burst set at a predetermined time length independent from asubcarrier spacing and partially spanning an UL/DL burst, and countingone or more code block groups (CBGs) in the reference UL/DL burst; andscheduling a retransmission of an UL/DL communication based on theadjusted CWS.
 17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim16, wherein adjusting the CWS comprises: counting one or more negativeacknowledgments (NACKs) from a signal received from a user equipment(UE), wherein in response to a NACK of the one or more NACKs beingreceived for at least one of the one or more CBGs specific to atransmission block (TB), counting a CBG hybrid automatic repeat request(HARD) feedback for the TB within the reference UL/DL burst as a NACK;and adjusting the CWS based on the counted NACKs.
 18. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein adjusting the CWScomprises: counting a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedbackindividually for each one of the one or more CBGs specific to atransmission block (TB) as either an acknowledgement (ACK) or a negativeacknowledgement (NACK); and adjusting the CWS based on the countedNACKs.
 19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16,wherein adjusting the CWS comprises: counting a hybrid automatic repeatrequest (HARQ) feedback individually for each one of the one or moreCBGs specific to a transmission block (TB) as either an acknowledgement(ACK) or a negative acknowledgement (NACK); and assigning the TB to anACK/NACK ratio score.
 20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium ofclaim 19, wherein adjusting the CWS comprises adjusting the CWS for anentire TB in response to the ACK/NACK ratio score being above apredetermined threshold.